ABSTRACT

Paragangliomas are rare neoplasms arising from undifferentiated cells of the primitive neural crest. We report a case of a 58-year-old female patient who presented with a large tissular retroperitoneal tumor situated above the left kidney. Serum epinephrine and norepinephrine levels were normal, and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) was 13.9 mg/24 hours. Complete resection of the tumor was performed without intra-operative incident. The histopathological examination and the immunohistochemical analyses concluded the diagnosis of a retroperitoneal paraganglioma.

Keywords: Retroperitoneal paraganglioma, vanillylmandelic acid