Inflammatory Pseudotumor of the Spleen: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

The authors report the case of an inflammatory pseudotumor found incidentally in the spleen of a 53-year-old woman who had undergone splenectomy for the treatment of immune thrombocytopenic purpura. An ultrasound performed 2 months prior to the operation showed a spleen of normal size with no appreciable masses; however, gross examination of morselized splenic tissue removed by laparoscopic splenectomy revealed two small, well-circumscribed, white–tan nodules measuring 0.8 and 1.5 cm admixed with otherwise normal-appearing splenic parenchyma. Microscopically, these mass lesions were inflammatory pseudotumors composed of a variable mixture of polyclonal populations of mature lymphocytes and plasma cells with eosinophils, neutrophils, histiocytes, and fibrous tissue. This case represents a rare splenic lesion in our review of the world literature. Inflammatory pseudotumors of the spleen are usually solitary, often asymptomatic, rarely diagnosed prior to surgical removal, and characterized by a varied but uniformly benign histologic appearance. Recognition of this entity by clinicians and pathologists is important in definitively ruling out malignancy of the spleen.