胸腺に発生したコレステリン肉芽腫の1例

Cholesterol Granuloma Arising in the Thymus：Report of a Case

はじめに　コレステリン肉芽腫はコレステリン結晶と異物巨細胞を特徴とする肉芽腫である．中耳や副鼻腔など耳鼻科領域での発生が多く，胸腺内に発生するものはまれである．われわれは胸腺に発生したコレステリン肉芽腫の手術症例を経験したので報告する．

The patient was a 64-year-old man who was found to have an abnormal shadow in the anterior mediastinum on a chest computed tomography （CT） scan during a health check. He was admitted for diagnosis and treatment, and underwent thoracoscopic thymic and thymic tumor removal. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged on the 4th postoperative day. Histopathological examination revealed numerous foreign body giant cells and cholesterol crystals in the thymus tissue, and the patient was diagnosed with cholesterol granuloma. One cause of cholesterol granuloma is trauma. Trauma was suspected as the cause in this case because the patient had bruised his chest in a traffic accident eight years ago. It is difficult to diagnose cholesterol granuloma from image findings, and surgical resection is necessary for diagnosis and treatment to differentiate it from malignant diseases.