6533b852fe1ef96bd12aae36

RESEARCH PRODUCT

RETRACTILE MESENTERITIS MIMICKING AN ADRENAL TUMOR

subject

description

Retractile mesenteritis is a nonspecific inflammatory process involving the adipose tissue of the mesentery.1 It is a diagnostic challenge to identify this benign condition and, thus, avoid unnecessary surgery. Although approximately 100 cases have been published describing stomach and intestine involvement,z to our knowledge involvement of the urological organs has not been described previously. Consequently the urological literature lacks any information on this pathological entity. We report a rare case of retractile mesenteritis presenting as an adrenal tumor. were obtained and sent for frozen section, which revealed fibrotic tissue similar to retroperitoneal fibrosis. Due to the extension and macroscopic appearance of the tumor the decision was made to resect the mass en bloc despite the lack of microscopic malignancy (fig. 2). The surgical specimen included the tail of the pancreas, left adrenal gland, left kidney and spleen (fig. 3). Definitive histological evaluation revealed retractile mesenteritis with-