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Fig 1: MRI neck of the patient showing T1-high signal lesion in left posterior
neck, within the neck muscles.
Discussion:
Lipomas are the most common soft-tissue tumors, but the head and
neck region is a rare site of origin (1). Angiolipoma (AL) is a variant of
lipoma, with a prominent vascular component, constituting only 6%-
17% of all lipomas (2).Twenty AL cases have been reported in the head
and neck region. Of these, only 4 cases have been reported in the neck,
3 of the infiltrative type (75%) (1,3). None of the other sites in the head
and neck were infiltrative (3,4,5). ALs of the neck tend to be infiltrative
in nature. They usually present as painful or tender subcutaneous
masses in young adults. Infiltrating ALs also can lead to muscular
pain and neural deficits (1,3).
Histopathologic characteristics of AL are described as follows:
1. gross evidence of tumor formation with or without a capsule;
2. microscopic evidence of 50% mature lipocytes in the tumor;
3. microscopic evidence of angiomatous proliferation in tumor (1,3).
ALs are divided into infiltrating and noninfiltrating types;
histologically similar both with proliferation of blood vessels and
lipocytes, but the infiltrating type have no identifiable capsule, and
there may be pleomorphism, atypia, or mitotic figures (1,3).
References:
1- Enver Ozer, MD, and David E. Schuller, MD, Angiolipoma of the neck
Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (2006) 135, 643-644
2- Lin JJ, Lin F. Two entities in angiolipoma. A study of 459 cases of lipoma with
review of literature on infiltrating angiolipoma. Cancer 1974;34:720 –7.
3- Alvi A, Garner C, Thomas W. Angiolipoma of the head and neck. J
Otolaryngol 1998;27:100 –3.
4- Alobid I, Benitez P, Berenguer J, et al. Parapharyngeal angiolipoma causing
obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. Acta Otolaryngol 2004; 124:210 –2.
5- Reilly JS, Kelly DR, Royal SA. Angiolipoma of the parotid: case report and
review. Laryngoscope 1988;98:818 –21.
6-Chew FS, Hudson TM, Hawkins IF. Radiology of infiltrating angiolipoma. AJR
Am J Roentgenol 1980;135:781–7.
7- Jee Young Kim, Jeong Mi Park, Gye Yeon Lim, Kyung Ah Chun, Young Ha
Park, and Jin Young Yoo. Atypical Benign Lipomatous Tumors in the Soft
Tissue: Radiographic and Pathologic Correlation. Journal of Computer Assisted
Tomography 26(6):1063–1068
8-Akyuz C, Emir S, Buyukpamukcu M, et al. Successful treatment with interferon
alfa in infiltrating angiolipoma: a case presenting with Kasabach-Merritt
syndrome. Arch Dis Child 2003;88:67.