Ganglioneuroma: an ’incidentaloma' of childhood

Abstract.

In adults clinically silent adrenal masses can be discovered incidentally in imaging studies. Most of these ’incidentalomas' are benign, non-functioning adenomas. In contradistinction, in infancy and childhood the most common adrenal mass is the neuroblastoma, a malignant neural crest tumour. Four children are described, each with a benign neural crest tumour – ganglioneuroma – incidentally discovered by conventional radiography or sonographic examination. Complete surgical excision resulted in total recovery of all the children.