Primary sarcoma of the peritoneum / by J.M. Elder.

  • Elder, John Munro, 1859-
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Primary sarcoma of the peritoneum / by J.M. Elder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    palpate the liver or outline it by percussion. Necropsy showed a tumor involving the mesentery and adjacent glands, with numerous metastases in the pancreas, greater and lesser omen- tum, pleura, bronchial and inguinal glands. Microscopically it proved to be lymphosarcoma of the mesentery. The clinical pictures presented by our two cases varied considerably, as a reference to the histories will show. Yet both suggested tubercular peritonitis in some of its varied forms. The second case was particularly suggestive of rapid, miliary tuberculosis of the serous sacs (peritoneum and pleurae), while Case I. rather pointed to the chronic form of tubercular disease of the peritoneum, where there is present great thickening of the omentum with little or no fluid. It is greatly to be questioned if some cases, at least, of peritonitis attributed to tubercular infection, and in which no exploratory operation or post-mortem examination has been made, may not have been really cases of sarcoma of the peritoneum. I do not think that clinically we are yet in a position to make other than a tentative diagnosis in these cases, which diagnosis must be confirmed either by post-mortem findings or ante-mortem specimens subjected to microscopical examination