Castleman disease in pregnancy

Castleman disease, a rare disorder characterized by benign proliferation of lymphoid tissues, generally presents as a solitary mediastinal mass. We report the first case of this disease during pregnancy.

A 32-year-old woman presented with a large abdominal mass and vaginal bleeding during the second trimester of pregnancy. Abdominal ultrasound demonstrated a large, retroperitoneal solid mass of mixed echogenicity and increased vascularity. The patient underwent explorative laparotomy that revealed a mesenteric mass, histologically consistent with Castleman disease of the hyaline-vascular type. The mass was excised completely, and the immediate postoperative course was uneventful, although the patient went into spontaneous preterm labor during the 29th week of pregnancy.

Castleman disease should be considered one of the benign etiologies for an abdominal or retroperitoneal mass during pregnancy.