What kind of disease is hamartoma

Many people feel scared when they hear that they are diagnosed with hamartoma, wondering if the disease is incurable and will eventually lead to death. In fact, hamartoma is not as scary as everyone imagines. It is a benign tumor. What kind of disease is hamartoma? Let me give you a detailed introduction below.

The term hamartoma was first proposed by Albrecht in 1904. It 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. Hamartoma is not a true tumor. It grows slowly and increases with the development and growth of the body, but it stops growing to a certain extent. 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. It was considered rare in the past, but with the development of medical imaging, it has become very common. It can be a single disease or a manifestation of tuberous sclerosis. Foreign reports show that about half of the patients diagnosed with renal hamartoma have tuberous sclerosis, which is a hereditary disease with a familial tendency, manifested by brain dysplasia, epilepsy, and sebaceous adenoma of the cheek. Hamartoma can also occur in the brain, eyes, heart, lungs, and bones, and can sometimes be mistaken for metastatic lesions.

Hamartomas found during health examinations are sometimes difficult to differentiate from malignant tumors in the lungs because there is no dynamic observation. Hamartomas that grow rapidly in a short period of time are also difficult to diagnose. Therefore, when clinical and X-ray examinations 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.

Hamartoma can be treated surgically under general anesthesia. After opening the chest, the tumor can be seen on the surface of the lung. It is hard and not smooth. The tumor can be felt 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 malignant tumors, local resection or resection of the affected part is generally performed.