Medically speaking, ganglioneuroma is generally a rare benign tumor originating from sympathetic nerve cells. It rarely develops from neuroblastoma and mostly occurs in the sympathetic ganglia from the neck to the pelvic cavity, namely the posterior mediastinum and retroperitoneal paraspinal area. It is even more rare in the adrenal glands, where the incidence rate is currently low. Typically, based on CT scans, clinical manifestations can be classified into the following three categories.
1. Adrenal ganglioneuromas can occur at any age, with middle-aged and young adults being the most common. They are mostly solitary and typically located on the right side. Most patients have no obvious symptoms in the early stages of the disease. Its clinical features include nausea, abdominal distension, anorexia, etc. Despite the improvement of social and cultural standards and the rise in health awareness in modern society, due to the extremely inconspicuous clinical manifestations, patients are often diagnosed during physical examinations or when other needs arise, and the condition is already severe at the time of discovery.
2. A few patients may also experience symptoms such as diarrhea, dizziness, headache, fatigue, hypertension, masculinization, and myasthenia gravis. Due to the enhancement of the lesion edge, i.e., the increase in capillaries, producing more mucinous stroma affecting the normal physiological structure and morphology, however, these symptoms are also common in other malignant tumors related to the adrenal glands. The diagnosis can be based on the morphology of the blood vessels themselves in adrenal ganglioneuromas or normal hemodynamic manifestations.
3. Patients may experience abdominal or lumbar discomfort due to the compression of surrounding tissues and organs by larger lesions. Approximately 10% of people seek medical attention due to abdominal pain or lumbar weakness and discomfort. Due to the large size of the tumor, it compresses the sympathetic plexus distributed along the spine in the surrounding ganglionic cells, causing deformation of adjacent organs and leading to corresponding symptoms in patients. With the development of society and the gradual improvement of science and technology, there have been significant changes in imaging technology in the medical field, and CT scans have also become a common method for diagnosing adrenal ganglioneuromas. Therefore, once individuals discover symptoms that match the above descriptions in their daily lives, the priority should be to visit a local hospital promptly and seek treatment under the guidance of relevant professionals to avoid unnecessary consequences due to procrastination.
