Mediastinal lipoblastoma of infancy

We report the case of a rapidly expanding mediastinal and chest wall lipoblastoma in an 11-month old infant. Clinical presentation was respiratory distress and chest radiographs revealed a large soft tissue mass in the anterior mediastinum without specific features. CT scanning demonstrated a mass of principally fat attenuation, with enhancing hyperdense soft tissue whorls, which had a compressive effect on normal intrathoracic structures. At surgery the tumour was removed without complication and histology demonstrated an encapsulated, well differentiated lipoblastoma.