Thymoma associated with aregenerative and aplastic anemia in a five-year-old child

Abstract

A case of benign thymoma presenting with aregenerative anemia in a 5-year-old boy is reported. The tumor was successfully excised from the anterior mediastinum. The histology showed that it was a thymoma of mainly epithelial type with a number of spindle cell areas. Four weeks after thymectomy the child developed a severe aplastic anemia with pancytopenia and in spite of treatment with blood transfusions, prednisone and testosterone the patient died of generalized bleeding tendency. Thymomas in children younger than 11 years are rare and the association of thymoma and aregenerative or aplastic anemia in the first decade has not been reported in the literature.