Incidental finding of sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation of the spleen.

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of tumors in the spleen is rare; most tumors are benign and of vascular origin. In 2004 a vascular lesion was first described, the sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation (SANT), which is a benign lesion with good circumscription and multinodular angiomatoid appearance. We report a case of this rare tumor in the spleen which was incidentally found in a patient with a tumorous lesion in the pancreatic tail.

CASE REPORT: A 69-year-old patient was referred to our hospital with a tumor in the pancreatic tail which was suspicious for cancer. Radiologic work-up revealed furthermore a 4 cm in diameter large lesion central in the spleen suspicious for metastasis of the pancreatic tumor. The patient underwent surgery and a distal pancreatectomy with splenectomy was performed. Histologic specimen obtained a sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation in the spleen. The operative and postoperative course was uneventful.

CONCLUSIONS

SANT of the spleen are very rare tumors and should be considered as an important differential diagnosis to other vascular lesions.