A Case of Focal Fatty Replacement of the Pancreas

Tetsuro Sasada, Arimichi Takabayashi, Tomonobu Sato, Tetsuro Miyaoka, Atsuhiko Maki, Yoshiharu Shirakata, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Masami Mizumoto, Katsumi Takeuchi

Department of Surgery, Kitano Hospital

Fatty infiltration of the pancreas is a very common histological change which is distributed evenly in the different parts of the organ. It is very rare, however, that the same change is observed in a localized area in the pancreas. Only three cases of this change have been reported previously. A case of focal fatty replacement of the pancreas is presented here. A 39-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital complaining of back pain. Abdominal ultrasonography showed a round hyperechoic mass, 0.7 cm in diameter, in the body of the pancreas. Computed tomographic scanning revealed a low density area in the same site, which was not enhanced after intravenous administration of contrast medium. The lesion was enucleated. The resected specimen was spherical (0.6 cm in diameter), elastic-soft and yellowish. Histopathological examination showed that it was mainly composed of adipose cells without any malignant changes, in which small clusters of pancreatic acinar cells remained intact. A diagnosis of focal fatty replacement of the pancreas was made. When the tumors in the pancreas are detected in radiological examinations, the possibility of this pathological change should be borne in mind.

Key words
focal fatty replacement of the pancreas

Reprint requests
Tetsuro Sasada Department of Surgery, Kitano Hospital
13-3 Kamiyama-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka, 530 JAPAN

Accepted
May 13, 1992

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