|
 
 |
| CASE REPORT |
|
| Year : 2015 | Volume
: 21
| Issue : 4 | Page : 303-305 |
|
Helical lipoma in adult female
Ahmed Hassan Sweed, Mohammad Waheed El-Anwar
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
| Date of Web Publication | 16-Oct-2015 |
Correspondence Address:
Ahmed Hassan Sweed
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig
Egypt
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0971-7749.164547
To report the unusual site of commonly presented benign tumor (lipoma). We here present a case of a 17-year-old female patient who presented with painless swelling of the helix of the right auricle slowly growing since 1-year. histopathological examination of an excisional biopsy obtained from radiation therapy helical swelling confirms the diagnosis lipoma. Helical Lipoma is a very unusual location for a very common tumor. Keywords: Excisional biopsy, Helix, Lipoma
How to cite this article:
Sweed AH, El-Anwar MW. Helical lipoma in adult female. Indian J Otol 2015;21:303-5 |
| Introduction | |  |
A lipoma is benign tumor and presents as painless soft mass commonly diagnosed in adults,[1] and most commonly originate from the subcutaneous tissue of the neck and trunk. In the head and neck, it arises mainly in the posterior cervical triangle and forehead.[2] However, lipomas can present in unusual sites in head and neck.
| Case Report | | |
A 17-year-old female patient was presented with right painless swelling of the helix of the right auricle slowly growing since 1-year. Apart of this swelling, no other otological symptoms were complained. She had no history of facial trauma, infection or ear surgery with any significant medical history.
Examination revealed soft, mobile, regular, nontender, nonfluctuant, nonpulsatile, non pedunculated (sessile) mass of the right upper part of the helix with apparently normal mobile covering skin [Figure 1]. There was no other mass palpable in head and neck region. The rest of the otolaryngological examination was normal. General examination detected no cutaneous or soft tissue tumors.
Informed consent was obtained from the patient. Under local anesthesia, the mass was totally removed as one mass, and the wound was primarily closed after removal of redundant skin. The postoperative course was uneventful. The excised specimen showed a well-encapsulated, yellowish pink, and bilobed soft mass [Figure 2].
Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of lipoma. The patient is symptom-free up to date without complication. Moreover, clinical examination revealed apparently normal auricular configuration without recurrence, perichondritis or other pathology.
| Discussion | | |
Lipoma, the single most common benign tumor, composed of adipose tissue. About 15% of all lipomatosis tumors are seen in the head and neck.[3] The most common site of lipomatosis is the posterior neck. The lipoma was also detected in other locations include the parotid, buccal mucosa, hypopharynx, retropharynx, and larynx. A lipoma is rarely reported to involve the face, scalp, orbit, nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, nasopharynx, cranium or ear.[4] Cerebellopontine angle and internal auditory canal lipomas had been also reported producing symptoms similar to acoustic neuroma.[5]
Lipomas rarely originate from the external ear [6] like those originate from the ear lobule.[7] Only one case of lipoma of the helix of the pinna was previously reported by Mettias et al. 2012.[8]
A case of lipoma of the helix was reported and described in the current study; the diagnosis was clearly benign, Hence, excisional biopsy was decided. Fine-needle aspirate cytology (FNAC) was not performed. However, FNAC could be performed to confirm the diagnosis.[7]
The current reported subcutaneous lipoma was histologically proved as conventional lipoma similar to previously reported helical lipoma,[8] and without adding features (variants) such as osseous dysplasia as reported by Ramadass and Narayanan in their reported case of lipoma of the external ear. Current reported lipoma was the first reported adult helical lipoma and the differences between current case and previously reported one [8] in the old female are summarized in [Table 1].[8] | Table 1: Differences between the current reported lipoma and previously reported one
Click here to view |
To the best of our knowledge, this is the second case of lipoma of the auricular helix to be reported as the new site of lipoma and the first reported lipoma in adult age. Therefore, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of benign tumors of auricle and cure could be achieved with simple excision with a good cosmetic result when it is small.
| Conclusion | | |
The second case of lipoma originating from the helix of the auricle was reported and described in the current study, and it was removed successfully under local anesthesia. This directs surgeon attention to lipoma as a cause of helical mass as an early diagnosis when it is still small allows easy, safe complete removal.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | | |
| 1. | Hameed M. Pathology and genetics of adipocytic tumors. Cytogenet Genome Res 2007;118:138-47.  |
| 2. | Donley BG, Neel M, Mitias HM. Neural fibrolipoma of the foot: a case report. Foot Ankle Int 1996;17:712-3. |
| 3. | Dispenza F, De Stefano A, Romano G, Mazzoni A. Post-traumatic lipoma of the parotid gland: case report. Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital 2008;28:87-8. |
| 4. | Barnes L. Tumors and tumor-like lesions of the soft tissues. Surgical Pathology of the Head and Neck. 2 nd ed., Vol. 2. eBook; 2001. p. 915-8. |
| 5. | Tankéré F, Vitte E, Martin-Duverneuil N, Soudant J. Cerebellopontine angle lipomas: report of four cases and review of the literature. Neurosurgery 2002;50:626-31. |
| 6. | Ramadass T, Narayanan N. Lipoma of the external ear with osseous metaplasia. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2001;53:231-2. |
| 7. | Berner A, Lund-Iversen M, Nesland JM. Fine needle aspirations in oncology. Arkh Patol 2011;73:21-6. |
| 8. | Mettias B, Farboud A, Trinidade A, Bansal A, Zeitoun H. Lipoma of the pinnal helix: A very unusual location for a very common tumour. BMJ Case Reports 2012. pii: bcr1220115339. |
[Figure 1], [Figure 2]
[Table 1]
|
Users Online: 629
Search Pubmed for