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A Rare Presentation of Invasive Glomus Tumor in the Occipital Bone: Case Report

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Abstract

Glomus tumor is a perivascular tumor commonly originating from the digits. It is a benign tumor; however, few authors stated that it can potentially be malignant. Extra-digital glomus tumor is rare and challenging to be diagnosed based on imaging and without histopathological examination. It can mimic a variety of benign and malignant soft tissue neoplasms. Considering this entity in an extra-digital location is the way to accurately diagnose these patients, resulting in proper management. This is a 17-year-old male patient with an occipital region swelling with no trauma history or skin changes. Imaging of this of swelling do not give solid conclusion. Surgical resection was done and tuned to be glomus tumor. Following the surgical resection, the patient had no significant residual or recurrence on subsequent clinical follow-up. Glomus tumor at the scalp region is a diagnostic challenge mimicking malignancy and locally aggressive neoplasm. This entity should be considered as one of the differential diagnoses of hypervascular head and neck masses. Prompt accurate radiological diagnosis of such location is important due to the variability of differential diagnoses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia

    Ibraheem AlQurashi & Tagelasfya Abdalla

  2. Department of Radiology, King Fahad Hospital Hufof, Hofuf, Saudi Arabia

    Hassan Alsayegh & Batla Albattat

  3. Department of Pathology, King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia

    Khalid Ghallab

  4. Department of Radiology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Maram Alothman

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  1. Ibraheem AlQurashi
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  2. Hassan Alsayegh
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  3. Tagelasfya Abdalla
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  4. Batla Albattat
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  5. Khalid Ghallab
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  6. Maram Alothman
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IQ: drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content. HA: substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work. TA: agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. BB: agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. KG: substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work. MO: final approval of the version to be published.

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Correspondence to Hassan Alsayegh.

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AlQurashi, I., Alsayegh, H., Abdalla, T. et al. A Rare Presentation of Invasive Glomus Tumor in the Occipital Bone: Case Report. SN Compr. Clin. Med. 5, 263 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-023-01590-1

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