[Pleural lipoma: report of a case]

Although lipomas are the most common form of the benign neoplasm, occurrence within the thoracic cage is uncommon, and lipomas originating from the pleura are very rare. We report an unusual case of a 63-year-old male whose serial chest X-ray demonstrated an abnormal shadow of which size was increasing. A chest wall tumor was suspected based on the findings of computed tomography (CT) of the thorax. The tumor was resected by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and the patient remains well with no recurrence 4 years postoperatively. The resected tumor was a yellowish pleural mass and the pathological diagnosis was a benign lipoma. It is possible to make a diagnosis of lipoma preoperatively by CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), however, the correct differential diagnosis of lipoma and liposarcoma is imperfect only by radiological findings necessitating surgical removal if possible. However, in view of the imperfect differentiation between lipoma and liposarcoma, surgical treatment should be considered.