Adrenal myelolipoma: a 10-year single-center experience and literature review

Adrenal myelolipoma is a rare, nonfunctioning, and benign tumor. We report our experience of surgically treated patients from a single institute and review the literature. Six patients (three men and three women) were diagnosed and received surgical intervention. A retrospective analysis was done by reviewing medical records. In our series, three patients were diagnosed incidentally and the others were discovered due to symptoms. All received surgery, including laparoscopic adrenalectomy. There was no recurrence. In the literature review, right adrenal gland was dominant and the prevalent age was from the fourth to sixth decades. The most common symptoms were abdominal and flank pain. Adrenal myelolipoma is uncommon and easily confused with malignancy when of large size (≥ 6 cm). Surgery may be reserved for symptomatic cases and those lesions that cannot reliably be diagnosed. Large tumors (≥ 6 cm) can be excised surgically or laparoscopically.