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What’s known and what’s new in adipose lesions of peripheral nerves?

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Abstract

Background

Adipose lesions of nerve primarily include intra- and extraneural lipomas and lipomatosis of nerve (LN). This paper will summarize the advances that have been made in the past decade, particularly related to LN and nerve territory overgrowth that have improved our understanding of the natural history, genetic background, diagnosis, imaging features, and clinical management.

Methods and materials

Articles about adipose lesions of nerve were reviewed from 2011, when the last comprehensive review on this topic was published. Papers reporting advances on natural history, genetic background, diagnosis, imaging features, and clinical management were screened using PubMed and Google Scholar databases and then analyzed. Case reports and small case series were included only if they reported model examples of discussed pathologies, as these types of articles were summarized in recent systematic reviews on intraneural lipomas and LN. All eligible papers were assessed by the authors, who are subject matter experts.

Results

The first screen revealed 404 articles. After careful evaluation, a total of 53 articles were analyzed which includes advances in diagnosis (especially imaging), classification of the lesions, the role of somatic mutations in PIK3CA in LN, and treatment approaches for all adipose lesions of the peripheral nerve.

Conclusion

Many advances have been made in the understanding of adipose lesions of nerve in the past decade. These pathologic entities are more readily recognized as a spectrum of lesions that share common phenotypic features.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. David Factor for his help with the artwork.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Gonda 8-214, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Tomas Marek & Robert J. Spinner

  2. First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Tomas Marek & Robert Bartos

  3. Department of Neurologic Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84132, USA

    Mark A. Mahan

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Jodi M. Carter

  5. Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Benjamin M. Howe & Kimberly K. Amrami

  6. Institute of Anatomy, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Robert Bartos

  7. Department of Neurologic Surgery, Masaryk Hospital, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic

    Robert Bartos

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  1. Tomas Marek
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Correspondence to Robert J. Spinner.

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This is an important study on adipose tumors of the peripheral nerves. The authors give a clear update of the knowledge along with illustrations that add further clarification of the aspects related with classification, diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.

Ridvan Alimehmeti

Tirana, Albania

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Marek, T., Mahan, M.A., Carter, J.M. et al. What’s known and what’s new in adipose lesions of peripheral nerves?. Acta Neurochir 163, 835–842 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-020-04620-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-020-04620-2

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