Background: Extra-adrenal myelolipomas are rare benign tumours. Other soft tissue tumours such as well-differentiated liposarcomas appear morphological almost identical. Preoperative imaging and especially biopsy are important tools to diagnose these lesions.
Case presentation: We report a very seldom case of a simultaneous myelolipoma of the adrenal gland in association with an extra-adrenal myelolipoma in an 75-year-old man. With a review of the literature we describe and discuss the aetiology, differential diagnosis and treatment of patients with respect to adrenal and extra-adrenal lesions.
Conclusion: The appearance of a simultaneous adrenal and extra-adrenal myelolipoma is a rare incident. We conclude that such lesions should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a fat-containing tumour in the retroperitoneal tissue/compartment.