[Experiences of diagnosing and treating atypical renal angiomyolipoma--a report of 22 cases].

BACKGROUND &

OBJECTIVE

Renal angiomyolipoma (RMAL) is a benign renal tumor. The patients could be rechecked regularly or treated with operation. The result of operation is good. But the atypical cases are easy to be misdiagnosed. This study was to summarize our experiences of diagnosing and treating atypical RMAL.

METHODS

Clinical data of 22 atypical RMAL patients, treated in Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University from Jan. 1999 to Nov. 2005, were analyzed.

RESULTS

Of the 22 cases of atypical RMAL, 7 were misdiagnosed as renal carcinoma, and treated with radical nephrectomy (6 cases) and nephron-sparing operation (1 case)û 1 was misdiagnosed as renal pelvic carcinoma, and treated with radical resection; 14 were correctly diagnosed through analyzing the image information of computed tomography (CT), B-ultrasound (B-US), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), intravenous urography (IVU), and contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and treated with nephron-sparing operation (9 cases) and nephrectomy (3 cases), or were rechecked during follow-up (2 cases). All cases were confirmed as RMAL by postoperative pathology. No local relapse occurred during follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Careful analysis of image information can help to avoid misdiagnosis of atypical RMAL. The prognosis of RMAL after appropriate treatment is good.