Cervical paraspinous desmoid tumor in a child: case report

Desmoid tumors are uncommon fibroblastic proliferative lesions usually occurring in the abdominal wall of adults. We report an unusual case of such a tumor presenting as a rapidly growing cervical paraspinous mass in a 19-month-old girl. After surgical resection without adjuvant therapy, the child is recurrence free after 17 months. The primary treatment of these lesions is surgical resection. We found magnetic resonance imaging to be the best imaging method for evaluation, because it was able to distinguish the tumor from the surrounding muscle. Careful postoperative surveillance is warranted, because these tumors have a high rate of recurrence. Although rare, desmoid tumor should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a paraspinous soft tissue tumor in a pediatric patient.