Mesenteric lipoblastoma in a 4-year-old

A 4-year-old girl was admitted with a history of abdominal pain for 10 days. Abdominal US showed a large solid mass with homogeneously increased echogenicity. Contrastenhanced CT showed a large, well-defined multilocular mass of largely fat density with enhancing septa occupying most of the abdominal cavity (Fig. 1). Microscopically, the tumor was made up of lobules of mature and immature fat cells and typical lipoblasts with large, atypical and vacuolated nuclei, confirming the diagnosis of a mesenteric lipoblastoma (Fig. 2). Lipoblastoma arising in the mesentery is extremely rare. Although preoperative imaging might be useful to assess the extent of disease and aid in planning surgical resection, it is of little help in differentiating lipomatous tumors [1, 2].