Incidental retroperitoneal paraganglioma, imaging workup and CT-guided biopsy: A case report

Extra-adrenal paraganglioma of the retroperitoneum is a very rare neoplasm arising from cells of the primitive neural crest.We report a case of an 80-years-old woman, who has been transferred to our neurology department with unsteady gait and ataxia, no abdominal pain, accidentally -as part of polyneuropathy screening -a retroperitoneal tumor situated at the aortic bifurcation was found in an ultrasound examination.At first our suggested diagnosis was a GIST, so we performed a CT guided core biopsy, the histology result was a paraganglioma, so we did a blood test, which showed elevated noradrenaline in plasma and normetanephrine in urinalysis.The patient showed no metastasis in PET CT Scan and was successfully treated by complete surgical removal of the tumor.