Treatment of 28 patients with sclerosing hemangioma (SH) of the lung

BACKGROUND: Sclerosing hemangioma (SH) of the lung is a kind of rare pulmonary tumor. Preoperative diagnosis of this tumor is difficult and it is now generally accepted that SH of the lung is benign lesions and surgical excision alone is curative. Herein, we present our experiences of treating 28 patients with SH. METHODS: The medical records of 28 patients with SH from 1994 to 2010 at the Department of Thoracic Surgery in Beijing Chest Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: There were 3 male and 25 female patients with sclerosing hemangioma and 50% of the patients were asymptomatic. Preoperatively, all the patients had undergone CT of chest and 5 patients had undergone PET scan but 4 patients were misdiagnosed as malignancy. There was no operative mortality or tumor recurrence despite that three different operative methods were undertaken. CONCLUSIONS: SH has a high incidence in middle-aged women. Most of SH is asymptomatic and the symptoms of SH are not related to the tumor size and distribution. The features of chest CT and PET are not specific. Bilateral or multiple lesions should not exclude the possibility of SH. Complete excision of lesion is a curable treatment method and there is no evidence to verify the need of adjuvant therapy.