Incidental littoral cell angioma of the spleen

We present a case of LCA that was discovered incidentally in a 52-year-old woman who presented with biliary colic at the time of consultation for cholecystectomy. This vascular neoplasm was evaluated by ultrasound, CT, MRI, Tc-99m labelled red blood cell scintigraphy, and core biopsy. A splenectomy revealed LCA by pathological evaluation. Post-operative outcome was favourable with no evidence of complication or recurrent disease. Following this case presentation, clinical, radiographic, and pathological features of LCA will be reviewed as well as recent advances in our understanding of this uncommon splenic lesion.LCA is a rare, generally benign, primary vascular tumour of the spleen that typically is discovered incidentally. Individuals diagnosed with this tumour must be carefully evaluated to exclude primary, secondary, and synchronous malignancies.Littoral Cell Angioma (LCA) of the spleen was recently described by Falk et al. in 1991 [1]. This group reviewed 200 surgical specimens of benign vascular splenic tumours and found 17 similar tumours that appeared related to the cells lining the red pulp splenic sinuses [1]. These tumours were unique in that they displayed both epithelial and histiocytic properties based on their cell of origin, the splenic littoral cells [1]. From these observations, this group designated this new vascular tumour of the spleen LCA [1].Since this initial description, there have been scattered case reports and few case series of LCA [2-10]. The clinical presentation of LCA ranges from being completely asymptomatic and discovered incidentally, to presenting with a constellation of signs and symptoms such as abdominal pain, vague constitutional symptoms, splenomegaly, and hypersplenism [2-6]. Although first described as benign, LCA has recently been shown to exhibit malignant potential [11,12] and may also be associated with other visceral malignancies [13]. In this report, we present a case of LCA including its diagnostic work-up, surgica