The patient is a middle aged man who developed rest pain of his left leg after CABG for 3VCAD/MI. Workup revealed an occluded left iliac arterial system with diffuse atherosclerosis of his aorta and iliac arteries. He had a long history of bilateral calf claudication and his right SFA was occluded and his left SFA was diffusely diseased. CTA was performed and showed the described anatomy

And a “2.2cm peripherally enhancing mass” probably representing a lymph node with central necrosis, adjacent to the aorta.

I proceeded with aorto-right iliac and left femoral bypass, planning on later leg revascularization as needed after establishing inflow. During the retroperitoneal dissection over the aorta, I ran into this purplish mass and on manipulation, the patient’s blood pressure shot to 210mmHg. As my brain processed, my resident who had just finished reading his chapter on endocrine, said, “this could be a pheochromocytoma.”

That tumor was out quicker than you could say “snit.” Frozen section, and later final pathology returned paraganglionoma.

The patient recovered well and graciously gave permission, as all my patients here do, to allow this to be discussed. He noted that hypertension kept him out of Vietnam. Records showed an uneventful CABG.

Applying the retrospectocsope, I will now be far more wary of midline retroperitoneal lesions that are highly vascularizad.