A Case of Abdominal Discomfort Caused by Benign Multicystic Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of A Case of Abdominal Discomfort Caused by Benign Multicystic Peritoneal Mesothelioma, by T.G. Cotter, J.S. Van Arnam, J.A. Schaffner (Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 2016).

The study

• Authors: T.G. Cotter, J.S. Van Arnam, J.A. Schaffner
• Journal: Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
• Published: 2016;14(12):e147-e148
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

This Image of the Month report described a 49-year-old man who presented with 2 months of intermittent lower abdominal discomfort. The pelvic discomfort increased through the day, came with a sense of urgency and was relieved by a bowel movement. He was a former smoker with a 12 pack-year history, had a prior cholecystectomy, and had no known environmental exposures. Physical and rectal examinations were unremarkable. A CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis showed a lobulated multicystic mass in front of the rectosigmoid junction, with no retroperitoneal or pelvic adenopathy. MRI confirmed a multiseptated cystic lesion with rim enhancement. Colonoscopy was normal. The mass was surgically removed. Pathology showed a multiloculated, thin-walled cystic mass lined by mesothelial cells, consistent with benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma (BMPM). Recovery was uneventful, and his symptoms had resolved at follow-up 3 months after surgery. The authors noted that BMPM is a rare lesion of unknown cause that occurs mainly in women of reproductive age and is exceedingly rare in men. They stated that, unlike pleural mesothelioma, it has no association with asbestos exposure. They wrote that diagnosis requires surgical pathology, with calretinin staining confirming it when doubt remains. Complete resection is recommended, although recurrence can reach 50%, and follow-up imaging should be considered. They concluded that the case highlighted this rare entity in a middle-aged man.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This was a case report, written for an image-focused feature, about one patient: a 49-year-old man who had had 2 months of intermittent lower abdominal discomfort. He had no known environmental exposures. A CT scan showed a lobulated multicystic mass in front of the rectosigmoid junction, where the lower colon meets the rectum. An MRI confirmed a multiseptated cystic lesion in that area. A colonoscopy was normal. The mass was removed by surgery, and the pathology was consistent with benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma (BMPM). His recovery after surgery was uneventful, and his symptoms had gone away by a follow-up visit 3 months after surgery. In their discussion, citing earlier published work rather than this case, the authors wrote that unlike pleural mesothelioma, BMPM has no association with asbestos exposure. The authors wrote that this case highlights the rare entity of BMPM in a middle-aged man. Because it describes a single patient, the report does not show how often this condition occurs.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Case report (single patient), prepared for the journal's Image of the Month feature
• Who was studied: One 49-year-old man with 2 months of intermittent lower abdominal discomfort
• Exposure: No asbestos or other exposure was studied. The patient was reported to have no known environmental exposures.
• Main results:
  • In this patient, a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis showed a lobulated multicystic mass in front of the rectosigmoid junction.
  • In this patient, MRI confirmed a multiseptated cystic lesion in the rectosigmoid region.
  • This patient's colonoscopy was normal.
  • After surgical removal, the pathology was consistent with benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma (BMPM), and this patient's recovery after surgery was uneventful.
  • This patient's symptoms had resolved at follow-up 3 months after surgery.
  • Background statement from the authors' discussion, citing a published review (reference 1), not a finding of this case: unlike pleural mesothelioma, BMPM has no association with asbestos exposure.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors wrote that this case highlights the rare entity of BMPM in a middle-aged man.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Peritoneal Mesothelioma, Environmental Exposure, CT Scan, Pathology, Mesothelial Cells, Pleural Mesothelioma, Asbestos Exposure, Calretinin.

Related studies

• Benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma presenting as a ghost abdominal mass — H. Jerraya, W. Ghariani, et al. (2016)
• Benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma: a rare cause of intra-abdominal cystic disease — B. Campbell, D. Mehanna, et al. (2017)
• Multi-institutional experience of diffuse intra-abdominal multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma — T.C. Chua, T.D. Yan, et al. (2011)
• Benign multicystic mesothelioma and peritoneal inclusion cysts: are they the same clinical and histopathological entities? A systematic review to find an evidence-based management — A.M.C. Rapisarda, A. Cianci, et al. (2018)
• Imaging appearance of benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma: a case report and review of the literature — V. Mehta, V. Chowdhary, et al. (2017)
• A recurrence of benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma treated through laparoscopic excision: a case report and review of the literature — T.D. Witek, J.W. Marchese, et al. (2014)

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