Rare case of pancreatic lipomatous hamartoma

Abstract

A middle-aged man had an incidental finding of 10.1 cm lipomatous mass arising from pancreatic body/neck detected on CT scan. He was asymptomatic. He underwent surgical resection of the mass due to concern for malignancy. His postoperative course was complicated by a high-volume pancreatic leak of approximately 900 mL/day. He underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and insertion of a pancreatic stent, with some improvement in the pancreatic leak. His leak eventually settled after 3 months. The final histopathology showed lobules of mature adipocytes with small islands of disorganised benign pancreatic ducts and acini interspersed within them, suggestive of pancreatic hamartoma of lipomatous variant. Pancreatic lipomatous hamartomas are rare and are often diagnosed on final histopathology when the initial resection was performed due to diagnostic uncertainty or concern for malignancy. It is a benign lesion with an indolent course and must be discriminated from other lipomatous lesions of the pancreas. An awareness of the condition is important to help guide management.