Abstract
Renal angiomyolipoma (AML) is an uncommon hamartomatous benign tumour and may present in an isolated form or associated with tuberous sclerosis (Bourneville's disease). Since there is no specific symptomatology when dimensions are small or medium, discovery is often accidental and the tumour may sometimes grow to a considerable size. In the symptomatic forms or larger tumours, surgery may be indicated due to the risk of retroperitoneal hemorrhage, both spontaneous and secondary to lumbar trauma, however slight. As the tumour is benign, kidney-sparing surgery should be as conservative as possible. For this purpose, ultrasound and CT scan are considered essential for a differential diagnosis between AML and parenchymal renal masses. In our experience with 14 cases (12 women and 2 men; minimum age 31 years, maximum 62 years) of monolateral renal AML (10 right kidney AML and 4 left kidney AML) in patients not suffering from tuberous sclerosis, treated surgically between August 1988 and February 1997, the pre-operative ultrasound and CT scan gave a correct diagnosis in 7 cases, a suggestion of renal carcinoma in 5 cases while leaving doubts in 2 cases. The two methods of investigation therefore proved not to be error-free. Following instrumental diagnosis, 12 patients underwent enucleoresection of the tumour while the remaining two underwent extensive nephrectomy. The presence of hemorrhagic areas with AML was considered to be the frequent cause of pre-operative diagnostic error.
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