Inflammatory pseudotumors of the kidney: a case study.

Inflammatory pseudotumors are uncommon benign tumors of unknown etiology wh ich may develop at several anatomical sites, e.g., the airways and gastroin testinal tissues, soft tissues, the orbit, the spleen, or the lymph nodes. The renal site is extremely rare, and presents the problem of differential diagnosis as the clinical and radiological aspects of this tumor are simila r to those of an adenoma or an angiomyolipoma, and suggest the presence of a carcinoma, in particular a cystic renal carcinoma which is also a rare fo rm of tumor. There is therefore a risk that this benign lesion could be mis diagnosed. Due to the good prognosis associated with this type of tumor, in cases where the definitive diagnosis has been established no surgical proc edure is necessary. However, the difficulty in making this diagnosis preope ratively means that in general the organ has to be surgically removed so th at a histological analysis can be made and the negative or positive finding s confirmed. In the present study, the case of an inflammatory pseudotumor of the kidney has been described. In this instance, radical nephrectomy of the left kidney was carried out as the disease was presumed to be renal cel l adenocarcinoma. However, the histopathological analysis was negative as r egards malignancy, and indicated the presence of an inflammatory pseudotumo r. This article raises the question of the problem in establishing a preope rative definitive diagnosis, as a correct diagnosis is often only confirmed following nephrectomy (in cases where the contralateral kidney is healthy) . (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.