THE CHARACTERISTICS OF 9 PATIENTS WITH ADRENAL INCIDENTALOMAS

With the widening use of computerized tomography, the incidentaloma, a n adenoma found incidentally in the adrenal, in computerized tomograms obtained for problems not necessarily related to the adrenal, has eme rged as a recent clinical entity. Nine eases with such tumors are pres ented, here, along with a brief review of the related medical literatu re. Endocrine and other studies have shown that two of these nine pati ents had hormone secreting adrenal tumors, two pheochromocytomas. Surg ical resection of the tumor was performed in six of the cases and aspi ration biopsy was done in four with three completely benign cytologica l examination results (Class I or II) and one Class III result. The tu mor with the class III result turned out to be a benign pheochromocyto ma. CT estimates of the tumor size were 25 mm to 80 mm in the whole gr oup and 30 to 80 mm in the patients who were operated on. Operation an d histopathologic examination revealed three cortical adenomas, two ph eochromocytomas, and one myelolipoma. Although no malignant tumors wer e found, the percentage of functioning adrenal neoplasms is rather hig h (22.2%) in this group of nine incidentalomas. Cases of adrenal incid entaloma therefore require a thorough endocrine evaluation along with other examinations which allow the clinician to follow tumor size.