Retroperitoneal pulmonary sequestration: a rare congenital anomaly in a 71-year-old man.

The suprarenal fossa is a clinically silent area of the body where nonfunctioning, indolent lesions may pass unnoticed. We report on a 71-year-old man with muscle invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder who was found on staging abdominopelvic computerized tomography to have a 5 x 6 cm. left periaortic suprarenal mass. Serum analysis for a hormonally or vasoactive tumor was unrevealing. Fine needle aspiration was also nondiagnostic. An extrathoracic pulmonary sequestration was found at surgical exploration. Pulmonary sequestration rarely occurs in an extrathoracic location, is usually diagnosed in the first decade of life and to our knowledge has never been reported in this location in a patient of this age.

Duke Scholars

Author Wesley A. Cook Jr. Neurosurgery