Is surgical treatment of lipoblastoma always necessary?

Lipoblastoma is an uncommon, benign mesenchymal tumor with an excellent prognosis despite its potential to local invasion and rapid growth. However, in the literature, a spontaneous resolution has never been reported, and, consequently, the need for a complete surgical excision has never been questioned. The authors report a case of a 2-day- old boy with congenital diffuse lipoblastoma in the left thigh, which forced us to withold from surgical treatment to avoid the risk of mutilation in a patient so young. The lesion was followed-up by imaging, and a complete spontaneous resolution of the diffuse lipoblastoma was shown by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 1-year follow-up. In the literature, a complete surgical excision is recommended. The results of this case suggest that a "wait and see" approach is justified at least in infants with huge invasive lesions requiring a mutilating excision. J Pediatr Surg 35:1517-7513. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.