Despite scant information on ganglioneuromas (many just repackaging the NIH blurb in a different style sheet), I wasn’t losing sleep while waiting for the pathology report. However, it was still great to get the official phone call confirming it was, in fact, the most benign of -omas. Because this sort of thing is pretty rare, no fewer than four pathologists were involved in “Dude, check this out.” Hey, I would have done the same.
Since all of the earlier indications were an adrenal adenoma, I was curious how this fares in the -oma pecking order. I found two studies on pubmed that focused on laparoscopic removal of the adrenal gland. Of the 174 operations studied by Zografos [JSLS. 2010 Jul-Sep;14(3):364-8], three were ganglioneuromas. Another, more recent survey by Kulis [J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech A. 2011 Dec 13] considered 306 cases, of which three were ganglioneuromas. Youtube (of all places) has a video (the rest shows snippets from an operation – again, not safe for lunch. The patient also had some complications.) from a lecture where Drs. Edward Pucci and Fred Brody cite incidence of 1:100,000. Very rare, but still better than lottery.
On a completely different topic, since coming home, I’ve had some interesting conversations comparing surgery experiences that fall under the “Things I would have liked to have known” category. As I hadn’t seen any discussion of this, I infer that it other people are too polite to discuss in public. I’m not, especially if it’s potentially helpful information.
Apologies in advance to anyone who’s not had the sense to go read something more interesting and with 100% more bacon-scented airplane prawns right now.