A 15-Year-Old Male Baseball Player With a Mass in the Brachialis Muscle

A 15-year-old boy presented with a mass in his right arm after suffering a minor injury playing baseball. He had been diagnosed with a hematoma. There was no other outstanding medical/surgical history. Magnetic resonance images showed a heterogeneous mass arising from the brachialis muscle that mainly enhanced peripherally with extremely scant internal nodular enhancement. Core needle biopsy cells were positive for CD31 and CD34, markers for atypical endothelial cells, as well as MIB-1 and p53. The final diagnosis was an angiosarcoma of the brachialis muscle. Pediatric angiosarcoma, particularly within deep tissue, is exceedingly rare. Histological and immunohistochemical modalities led to the diagnosis. Magnetic resonance images suggested a mass with a large cystic/hemorrhagic space that could have been misconstrued as a hematoma had there been absolutely no nodular or septal enhancement. The patient underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation before undergoing limb-sparing surgery that included resection of the mass with the brachialis muscle and short head of the biceps muscle. Neoadjuvant treatment was deemed successful due to a drastic reduction in the size of the tumor and 95% tumor necrosis. The patient was disease free 2 years postoperatively. There had been no local/systemic recurrences. He was pain free, had normal elbow function, and had returned to playing baseball. It is important to be extremely suspicious when a patient presents with a hemorrhagic, painless, enlarging mass after sustaining minor trauma. A careful and meticulous biopsy must be completed to achieve the correct diagnosis. Magnetic resonance imaging with gadolinium is recommended for evaluation because these masses can be often misinterpreted as hematomas. [Orthopedics. 2016; 39(3):e545-e548.].