01.12.2011 | Case report | Ausgabe 1/2011 Open Access
'Boiled egg' in the peritoneal cavity-a giant peritoneal loose body in a 64-year-old man: a case report
- Zeitschrift:
- Journal of Medical Case Reports > Ausgabe 1/2011
Wichtige Hinweise
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1752-1947-5-297) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
AS assisted in the operation, contributed to manuscript conception, research, acquisition of data, drafting and writing of the manuscript as well as pre-operative and post-operative management of the patient. AJ carried out the histopathological evaluation and critically review of the manuscript. KKM carried out the critical review and revision of the manuscript. SV carried out the operation and contributed to the critical review of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Abstract
Introduction
Peritoneal loose bodies, or peritoneal mice, are rare asymptomatic lesions that are usually found as an incidental finding during abdominal surgery or autopsy. Giant loose bodies, measuring more than 5 cm, are rare and only a few cases are reported in the literature. These bodies are usually infarcted appendices epiploicae, which become detached and appear as a peritoneal loose body in the abdominal cavity. They may re-attach themselves to a surface, such as the lower aspect of the spleen or omentum, in which case they can be called a "parasitized peritoneal body", as in our case.
Case Presentation
We report a case of a giant loose peritoneal body measuring 7 × 5 cm found incidentally in a 64-year-old Indian man who presented with acute intestinal obstruction. We present the current hypothesis and our opinion on the genesis of such large bodies and discuss the problems in diagnosis.
Conclusion
Peritoneal loose bodies are common but giant peritoneal loose bodies are very rare. These giant bodies usually do not require any treatment until they become complicated. Present diagnosis modalities have limitations in the diagnosis of mobile lesions in the abdominal cavity, so care must be taken to avoid unnecessary laparotomies in uncomplicated cases.