Paraneoplastic Facial and Upper Extremity Edema: A New Clinical Entity?

Abstract

Observations:

Chronic orofacial edema may be a sign of a number of different clinical entities most of which are intermittently recurrrent, chronic and erythematous. In this case report, we report a patient with paraneoplastic chronic orofacial and hand edema. Fifty four-year-old female patient was admitted with a complaint of swelling of the face and hands that had been present for 5 years. Upper abdominal computed tomography revealed a hypodense, solid, retroperitoneal mass measuring 53x85x100 mm in the left middle abdominal quadrant. The patient had been operated and the histopathological investigation of this retroperitoneal mass revealed paraganglioma. Four and a half months following the operation the patient reported that her facial edema decreased in intensity by 90%. Here, we present a case of retroperitoneal paraganglioma existing with chronic facial and upper extremity edema that was thought to be a paraneoplastic phenomenon.