Kimura disease: a case report of a rare illness presenting as a common complaint

Kimura's disease mimicking thoracic spine dumbbell neurogenic tumor: a case report and literature review

Background

Kimura’s disease is a rare, benign chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology that mostly affects Asians. The disease typically presents as subcutaneous masses in the head or neck region that are predominantly found in the preauricular and submandibular areas.

Case presentation

A 7-year-old boy presenting with paralysis of both lower extremities and a thoracic spine dumbbell mass was initially diagnosed with a neurogenic tumor, but the pathological and laboratory examinations confirmed the diagnosis of Kimura’s disease. The paralysis symptom disappeared rapidly, but the patient had developed a recurrent mass in the cervical vertebral canal at the 9-month follow-up.

Conclusion

To our knowledge, no prior published literature has revealed Kimura’s disease cases that mimic dumbbell neurogenic tumors. Here, we report such a case of Kimura’s disease for the first time and provide a brief review of the literature.