A Case of Pulmonary Hamartoma in Childhood

Yi, Seon Yong; Lee, Sang Bae; Ryu, Min Hyuk; Lee, Dong Jin

Abstract

Pulmonary hamartoma is uncommon benign tumor-like malformation, which comprises abnormal mixing of the normal components of the lung i.e., cartilage, fat, smooth muscle or respiratory epithelium. The majority occurs in fourth and fifth decades of life, but extremely rare in the pediatric age. Pulmonary hamartoma is clinically classified to endobronchial and intrapulmonary hamartoma. The majority of the pulmonary hamartomas have no clinical symptoms and are detected incidentally by routine chest roentgenograms. But definite diagnosis should be necessary, because of its difficulty to differentiate from malignant and inflammatory lesions. We report a case of intrapulmonary hamartoma which was detected by routine chest roentgenogram check up and diagnosed by fine needle aspiration biopsy and pathological examination with the review of the literature.