Diagnosing a hematopoietic malignancy during shoulder arthroplasty: A case report

Abstract

Introduction. Determining the cause of shoulder pain requires is usually a challenge as many problems; such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, osteonecrosis, rotator cuff arthropathy, traumatic arthritis, fractures, conditions of cervical vertebra and neoplasms, can produce similar symptoms. The diagnosis is usually regarded incidental however, CLL diagnosis by histopathological evaluation performed on lymph nodes excised during a shoulder procedure has not been reported in literature, to the best of our knowledge. We share our experience on a CLL - small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) case diagnosed incidentally during reverse shoulder arthroplasty in this report. Case report. We report a case of a 69-year-old woman diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia - small lymphoblastic lymphoma, subsequent to excision of an cephalic lymph node which was incidentally determined during shoulder arthroplasty. Conclusion. Upon admission, patient had no history of malignancy, no pathologic findings on physical examination and only had proximal humerus nonunion determined on radiographs.