How to treat hamartoma

Do you know about hamartoma? I think many people don’t know much about this term. In fact, hamartoma occurs around us, but many people generally ignore it, because under normal circumstances it will not cause harm to human life. However, a hamartoma that is too large is also very scary. So how to treat hamartoma? Let’s learn about it below.

What is a hamartoma? A hamartoma refers to a tumor-like deformity caused by the incorrect combination and arrangement of normal tissues in a certain organ of the body during development.

The term "hamartoma" was first proposed by Albrecht in 1904. Hamartoma is not a true tumor. It grows slowly and increases with the development and growth of the body, but it stops when it reaches a certain size. It is coordinated with the body and rarely becomes malignant. There are also a few scholars who believe that hamartoma is a true tumor (such as renal angiomyolipoma) rather than an "abnormal combination of normal tissues" and should be classified as a mesenchymal tumor.

Western medicine treatment of hamartoma

Pulmonary hamartomas found during health examinations are sometimes difficult to distinguish from malignant tumors in the lungs because there is no dynamic observation. Pulmonary hamartomas that grow rapidly in a short period of time are also difficult to diagnose. Therefore, when clinical and X-ray findings cannot rule out malignant tumors, surgery should be performed as soon as possible. Even for benign hamartomas, early surgery can avoid complications such as pneumonia, atelectasis, and bronchiectasis caused by tumor growth, which can aggravate or complicate the condition.

The operation is performed under general anesthesia. After opening the chest, the tumor can be seen on the surface of the lung. It is hard and not smooth. You can feel the tumor sliding in the lung tissue. The tumor can be completely removed by cutting the lung tissue and separating it slightly. Except for endobronchial hamartoma or other possible malignant tumors, local resection or lung segment resection is generally performed.

TCM treatment of hamartoma

There is no effective conservative treatment for this disease, and traditional Chinese medicine cannot eliminate it.

Generally, for renal hamartomas that have treatment indications, such as when the tumor is large or grows rapidly during follow-up visits or is accompanied by corresponding clinical symptoms, we can consider removing it by laparoscopic nephrolithotomy or surgery, and the treatment effect is good.