Cystic lymphangioma: an uncommon type of scrotal swelling

Our plain-English summary of Cystic lymphangioma: an uncommon type of scrotal swelling, by G. Ferguson (British Journal of Urology, 1954).

The study

• Author: G. Ferguson
• Journal: British Journal of Urology
• Published: 1954;26(3):264-5
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article is a case report of one child with a rare scrotal swelling. It does not concern asbestos. A boy of two and a half years was admitted to the Hastings Hospitals with sudden, severe left-sided scrotal pain. Examination found an irregular cystic mass, roughly 6 by 5 by 2 cm, in the left side of the scrotum, separate from the testis and epididymis. At operation the mass consisted of many cysts tightly attached to the scrotal wall. Some cysts held blood, and the author judged that recent bleeding had ruptured cyst walls. The mass was removed, and the child recovered without recurrence at follow-up. Microscopy was consistent with cystic lymphangioma of the scrotum, with muscle bundles in some cyst walls. The author stated that only seven cases seemed previously reported. The author concluded that plain muscle may be a prominent microscopic feature. The author agreed that the mass's tight attachment to the scrotal wall supported the view that it arose from the scrotum itself. But the author argued that muscle bundles alone did not prove this, and the muscle fibres might not come from the dartos muscle.

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)
• Who was studied: One boy aged two and a half years admitted to the Urological Department of the Hastings Hospitals (England)
• Main results:
  • The child presented with sudden, severe pain in the left side of the scrotum lasting some hours
  • Examination found an irregular cystic mass about 6 by 5 by 2 cm on the left side of the scrotum; the testis and epididymis were separate from it
  • At operation the swelling was a multicystic mass closely attached to the scrotal wall
  • Recent bleeding had occurred and had ruptured cyst walls
  • Pathology findings were consistent with cystic lymphangioma of the scrotum; some cyst walls contained bundles of muscle
  • The wound healed with no evidence of recurrence at outpatient follow-up
  • The author stated that only seven cases appeared to have been reported previously (a statement about the literature, not a finding of this case)
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that cystic lymphangioma of the scrotum appears to be rare and that plain muscle may be a prominent microscopic feature. The author agreed that the tumour's close attachment to the scrotal wall supported the view that it arises from the scrotum itself. However, the author argued that the presence of muscle bundles alone is not conclusive proof of that origin, and that the muscle fibres may not come from the dartos muscle.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

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• Differentiating a large abdominal cystic lymphangioma from multicystic mesothelioma: report of a case — H. Nagata, Y. Yonemura, et al. (2014)
• Benign cystic mesothelioma in a boy: An uncommon case mimicking a lymphangioma — P. Fernandez Eire, M.X. Lemos Bouzas, et al. (2015)
• Fibrous mesotheliomas (pseudofibroma) of the scrotal sac: a light and ultrastructural study — B. Benisch, B. Peison, et al. (1981)
• Scrotal peritoneal mesothelioma on PET/CT — S. Ozguven, M. Aras, et al. (2014)
• Malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis: a atypical presentation of a rare scrotal tumour — M.C. Harris, C. Logan, et al. (2019)

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