Alveolar echinococcosis of the right adrenal gland: a case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND Extrahepatic manifestations of Echinococcus multilocularis are very rare, especially in the adrenal glands. To the best of our knowledge, only seven cases of adrenal alveolar echinococcosis have been reported, all from the Far East. All of these occurred exclusively in the right adrenal gland. CASE PRESENTATION We report a rare case of an extrahepatic alveolar echinococcosis in an asymptomatic 78-year-old white man with an incidentaloma of his right adrenal gland. After surgical resection and medical treatment with albendazole no recurrence of the disease appeared at 1-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS As the occurrence of Echinococcus multilocularis in Europe increases, alveolar echinococcosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of cystic adrenal incidentalomas.