Kidney angiomyolipoma is one of the most common benign kidney tumors . This tumor develops from the mesenchymal type of tissue, and consists of blood vessels, smooth muscles and adipose tissue, precisely because of its composition, this disease is called kidney angiomyolipoma. Smooth muscle cells of the tumor are benign and organized into bundles and strata, blood vessels have a rather thick muscle wall, but weak elastic plates. In addition, the vessels in the tumor can accidentally rupture - this is due to the fact that muscle fibers grow and develop much faster than vessels, which physiologically cannot grow at the same speed and cannot keep up with them.
Kidney angiomyolipoma may well be combined with any other types of kidney tumors or simply develop against the background of an organ disease. Although angiomyolipoma of the kidney is a benign disease, in exceptional cases there are situations when the tumor grows in the adjacent lymph nodes or in the renal vein. But, this is rather an exception to the rule, therefore, the restrained tactics of surgical treatment applicable to this disease is quite justified.
Kidney angiomyolipoma often affects middle-aged and older people. Women suffer from this disease 4 times more often than men. In addition, there are 2 forms of this disease - the first (80% of all cases) sporadic, the second (20%) congenital, associated with tuberous sclerosis.
Symptoms of Angiomyolipoma
- Pain in the lower back and abdomen
Similar pains result from hemorrhages from a tumor that occur as a result of rupture of blood vessels. In addition, profuse hemorrhage in certain cases can cause the patient to have peritonitis and hemorrhagic shock.
- Palpable neoplasm
- Hematuria
- High blood pressure
Diagnosis of the disease
On an ultrasound in a patient who suffers from a disease such as kidney angiomyolipoma, a homogeneous round neoplasm with increased echogenicity is quite clearly visible.
A CT scan also shows a rounded neoplasm.
Perhaps when conducting an x-ray using urographin.
Kidney Angiomyolipoma - Treatment
Patients with small tumor sizes do not need surgical treatment. For example, a patient with a diagnosis of “Angiomyolipoma of the right kidney”, 4 cm in diameter, would be assigned to simply see a specialist and conduct an ultrasound or CT scan once a year. If the tumor does not progress, then it can not be removed.
Surgical treatment is necessary for almost every patient whose tumor size exceeds 5 cm in diameter, and whose second healthy kidney is functioning normally. The fact is that with this tumor size, there is a risk of hemorrhagic complications, that is, internal hemorrhages, which not only cause pain in the patient, but can also lead to death, due to the occurrence of sepsis of the body.
Surgical removal of the tumor is possible in two ways - the first is a simple resection of the kidney, in which part of the kidney is removed along with the tumor, and the second is enucleation of the tumor. Enucleation is a method of removing tumors in which the tissues of the organ are practically not affected, with the exception of incisions to penetrate the tumor. During enucleation (or husking of a tumor), the tissues around the formation are stratified, while maintaining the capsule of the neoplasm itself. The second method is applicable only to benign tumors.