Schwannomas are rare tumors in the retroperitoneal location. They can pose a diagnostic dilemma when presenting as an adrenal mass lesion due to their imaging characteristics. We report two cases of juxta-adrenal schwannomas presenting as symptomatic adrenal mass lesions. In both the cases, the clinical examination and functional evaluation was unremarkable and the radiological examination revealed a mixed intense adrenal mass lesion in one case with predominantly hyperintense areas and a very hyperintense lesion in another, in T2-weighted images, mimicking a adrenocortical malignancy and a pheochromocytoma respectively. Both cases were treated by surgical excision. Histopathological examination established the correct diagnosis of schwannoma, which was confirmed by immunohistochemical staining. Juxta-adrenal schwannoma is rare tumors of the retroperitoneum, which should also be borne in mind whenever encountering large nonsecreting adrenal tumors. We report a unique imaging characteristic, which helps in preoperative identification these rare lesions.
Keywords: Adrenal mass lesions; juxta-adrenal schwannoma; symptomatic.