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Soft-tissue mass may mimic sarcoma
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-The kittens took the rap, and the sarcoma diagnosis meowed out.
In a review of nine patients who had a tender, enlarging medial epitrochlear mass tentatively diagnosed by workup or MRI as a sarcoma, fine-needle aspiration in four confirmed cat-scratch disease, says Indiana University’s Dr. David Fulton. Aspiration was unnecessary in the others.
No patient had systemic symptoms or a history of trauma, and six had a history of recent exposure to kittens, though not all recalled a scratch, his team told the American Association for Hand Surgery meeting here. One patient also had an axillary mass and another had a mass in the upper arm. Symptoms averaged three weeks before referral to a specialist.
Two patients got oral antibiotics, and one drainage of a secondary infection of medial epitrochlear nodes. The self-limiting infection was followed in the others and resolved in all, with or without treatment. -Judith Groch
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