[Brown tumor in hyperparathyroidism secondary to chronic renal failure]

Brown tumor (BT) is an uncommon condition that represents the terminal stage of the cystic osteitis fibrosa and have been increasingly reported in hyperparathyroidism secondary to renal failure, due to the increase of survival in patient with hemodialysis. The fine needle aspiration diagnosis is of great importance in the recognition of the BT, although it can be difficult to distinguish it of lesions as the aneurysmal bone cyst and giant-cell tumor. We describe the case of 20-year-old female with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis during six years. Both x-rays and computer tomography revealed a tumor in head of right humerus and lytic images in scapula of the same side, clavicles and ribs. The patient was subjected to a fine needle aspiration biopsy of the tumor of humerus head and the sample was processed with the habitual technique of inclusion in paraffin and stained with hematoxilina and eosina. Histological preparations showed several multinucleate giant cells and spindly or fibrillary cells, feature that was pointed out as compatible, in a context of secondary hyperparathyroidism to chronic renal failure, with a BT. We consider that the radiological and tomographyc finds, besides the history of chronic renal failure with a long history of hemodialysis, were enough to link, with great approach, the histopathology with the diagnosis of BT.