Epidural angiolipoma is histologically distinct from its cutaneous counterpart in the calibre and density of its vascular component; a case report with review of the literature

Angiolipoma of the spine is a rare tumour and no studies have investigated a sufficient number of cases to reach general conclusions. Therefore, as yet, the pathological definition of this entity is not well established. The case of epidural angiolipoma reported here and a review of the literature revealed that this entity is distinct from cutaneous angiolipoma in that the calibre of its predominant vascular component is far greater than that of the fat cells. Therefore, epidural angiolipoma can be regarded as not only topographically, but also histologically, distinct from its subcutaneous counterpart.