Inflammatory pseudotumor of the lung: Report of four adult cases

Abstract

Inflammatory pseudotumors of the lung are rare and may produce diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma for the clinicians, pathologists, and surgeons. Herein, we reported on four patients with this uncommon disease. They were three men and one woman with a mean age of 37 years (range: 20 - 50). Three cases were symptomatic, complaining of cough, expectoration of sputum, hemoptysis, and chest pain. Three had solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) and one had a tumor-like mass in chest X-ray films. Wedge resection was performed for the first three cases. With suspicion of lung cancer, pneumonectomy was carried out for the last patient. The overall survival was 100%. There was no operative or postoperative complications/death or recurrence within 5 - 10 years of follow-up. All of them had benign appearances, which was proven by pathologic examination. Inflammatory pseudotumors of the lung are rare. Most behave in a benign fashion. It may increase slowly in size and sometimes has an aggressive behavior. Frozen section may be used during the operation for the diagnosis. According to pathologic examination, complete resection is safe and leads to excellent survival.