Is littoral cell angioma of the spleen as rare as previously believed in the pediatric population?

Ewa Matuszczak; Joanna Reszec; Wojciech Dębek; Adam Hermanowicz; Lech Chyczewski

doi:10.5603/FHC.2012.0067

Vol 50, No 3 (2012)

Original paper

Submitted: 2012-10-08

Accepted: 2012-10-08

Published online: 2012-10-08

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Is littoral cell angioma of the spleen as rare as previously believed in the pediatric population?

Ewa Matuszczak, Joanna Reszec, Wojciech Dębek, Adam Hermanowicz, Lech Chyczewski

DOI: 10.5603/FHC.2012.0067

Folia Histochem Cytobiol 2012;50(3):480-485.

Vol 50, No 3 (2012)

ORIGINAL PAPERS

Submitted: 2012-10-08

Accepted: 2012-10-08

Published online: 2012-10-08

Abstract

Littoral cell angioma (LCA) is a rare primary splenic vascular tumor, originating from the littoral cells
lining the red pulp sinuses of the spleen. There are only a handful of case reports of LCA in children to be found
in the literature. We performed a retrospective analysis of the medical charts of pediatric patients with splenic
lesions who were treated between 2005 and 2010 in the Pediatric Surgery Department of the Medical University
of Bialystok. Surprisingly, LCA accounted for 37.5% of the splenic lesions found in our series. The majority of
LCA tumors are benign, but given their malignant potential, splenectomy and long-term follow-up should be
the gold standard for their management. We strongly support the use of further cross-sectional studies to properly
elucidate the prevalence of littoral cell angioma of the spleen in the pediatric population.