Pheochromocytoma Manifesting Persistent Right Shoulder Pain and Hypochondralgia

Abstract

We report a 42-year-old female who initially complained of sub-acute onset of right upper quadrant abdominal pain with right shoulder pain. A CT scan incidentally revealed an adrenal tumor, and a final diagnosis of pheochromocytoma was made on the basis of endocrinological examinations. Symptomatically, the pheochromocytoma in our patient mimicked a hepato-biliary disease by presenting abdominal pain accompanying right shoulder pain that was assumed to be referred pain via the right phrenic nerve. Physicians may need to consider the possibility of pheochromocytoma in patients with abdominal symptoms.