Mylonas KS, Schizas D, Economopoulos KP. Adrenal ganglioneuroma: What you need to know. World J Clin Cases 2017; 5(10): 373-377 [PMID: 29085827 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v5.i10.373]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Konstantinos P Economopoulos, MD, PhD, General Surgery Resident, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, 2301 Erwin Rd., Durham, NC 27710, United States. economopoulos@sni.gr
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Oct 16, 2017; 5(10): 373-377 Published online Oct 16, 2017. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v5.i10.373
Adrenal ganglioneuroma: What you need to know
Konstantinos S Mylonas, Dimitrios Schizas, Konstantinos P Economopoulos
Konstantinos S Mylonas, Division of Pediatric Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, United States
Konstantinos S Mylonas, Dimitrios Schizas, Konstantinos P Economopoulos, Surgery Working Group, Society of Junior Doctors, 11852 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios Schizas, First Department of Surgery, Laiko General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Konstantinos P Economopoulos, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, United States
Author contributions: Mylonas KS, Schizas D and Economopoulos KP designed the study; Mylonas KS collected the data; Mylonas KS drafted the manuscript; Mylonas KS, Schizas D and Economopoulos KP critically revised the manuscript; Economopoulos KP supervised this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Konstantinos P Economopoulos, MD, PhD, General Surgery Resident, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, 2301 Erwin Rd., Durham, NC 27710, United States. economopoulos@sni.gr
Telephone: +1-617-5104641
Received: April 26, 2017 Peer-review started: April 26, 2017 First decision: May 23, 2017 Revised: June 14, 2017 Accepted: July 7, 2017 Article in press: July 7, 2017 Published online: October 16, 2017
Abstract
Adrenal ganglioneuromas (GNs) constitute rare, differentiated tumors which originate from neural crest cells. GNs are usually hormonally silent and tend to be discovered incidentally on imaging tests. Adrenalectomy is the gold standard for the treatment of primary adrenal GNs. Nevertheless, preoperative differential diagnosis of GNs remains extremely challenging, and thus histopathological examination is required in order to confirm the diagnosis of GN. Overall, prognosis after surgical resection seems to be excellent, without any recurrences or need for adjuvant therapy.
Core tip: Adrenal ganglioneuromas (GNs) are uncommon, differentiated tumors which originate from neural crest cells. These lesions are usually discovered incidentally because they tend to be hormonally silent. Even though, surgery is the gold standard for the treatment of adrenal GNs, the process of preoperative differential diagnosis remains extremely challenging. Therefore, histologic examination is necessary in order to confirm this rare diagnosis. In general, there is no need for adjuvant treatment and the overall prognosis of these patients is excellent.
