Clinicopathological characteristics of unicentric retroperitoneal Castleman’s disease: a study of 14 cases

BACKGROUND: The objectives of this study are to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis analysis of unicentric retroperitoneal Castleman’s disease (CD), and to improve the level of diagnosis and treatment of unicentric retroperitoneal CD. METHODS: The clinical data of 14 patients with unicentric retroperitoneal CD undergoing surgery from September 2007 to March 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: There were six males and eight females with a median age of 39 years old (range 15–58). Only three patients had a clinical manifestation of abdominal pain, and one patient associated with myasthenia gravis. All patients underwent surgical resection. The mean operation time was 137 min with a range of 72–472 min. The mean blood loss was 143 ml (range 50–500 ml). The CD was confirmed by histopathology. There were hyaline vascular (HV) type of CD in 13 cases, and mixed type of CD in one case. The mean hospital stay was 17.9 days with a mean postoperation hospital stay of 9.2 days. The duration of follow-up ranged from 21 to 99 months for 14 cases. All the 14 patients were alive without recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Unicentric retroperitoneal CD is a rare disease that is often misdiagnosed due to the absence of specific clinical manifestations. The final diagnosis depends on pathologic examination. Complete surgical resection of the tumor is the best therapeutic alternative for unicentric CD.