What is an abdominal wall sclerofibroma?

Following the successful removal of a 28-pound giant abdominal wall sclerofibroma for a 32-year-old female patient in 2006 and a 23-year-old female patient in 2010, our department recently removed a 30-pound giant tumor from an 18-year-old child who was still in high school. We were shocked by these staggering statistics and the pictures of the sharp contrast between the huge tumor and the frail patient, especially this young girl who was only 18 years old, not yet married, and with no history of trauma. These living young cases show us that there is a great need to increase public attention and awareness of the rare disease of abdominal wall sclerofibroma. Abdominal wall sclerosing fibroma, also known as abdominal wall ligament-like fibroma, is clinically rare, with a reported incidence of 0.2-0.4 per 100,000 people. Abdominal wall sclerosing fibroma is histologically a benign tumor, but its biological behavior is malignant. It is generally non-metastatic, but has a high recurrence rate, which can be as high as 70% after local excision. The cause of its pathogenesis is still unclear, most scholars report that it is related to trauma, and the tumor is mostly found in the original surgical incision and adjacent areas, and most of them are females, especially women of childbearing age, aged 25-37 years old, with a history of surgery. Some scholars believe that pregnancy and childbirth are also a kind of trauma, because the prolonged overstretching of the abdominal muscles during pregnancy and the continuous and violent contraction of the abdominal muscles during childbirth can cause trauma to the fibers and lead to tumorigenesis. However, we recently treated an 18-year-old girl who was not yet married and had no history of trauma, but grew such a huge abdominal wall rigid fibrous tumor, which is clinically rare. Happily, with the development of medicine and new materials science, this disease is no longer difficult to treat. However, we need to pay attention to two points: firstly, don’t fall into the misunderstanding that you can’t get out of the tumor, this tumor is not the other tumor, it belongs to the category of abdominal wall surgery, and it can only be surgically resected, and other methods such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy can’t let the patient benefit, and can’t stop the growth of the tumor; secondly, don’t give up so easily, and it should be detected and treated early, and the earlier, the better. Clinical practice has proved that the recurrence rate can be reduced to 4% if detected early and resected cleanly.