Pseudotumor of the omentum with a fishbone nucleus

J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2007 Apr;22(4):597-600. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1746.2006.03353.x.

Abstract

A 23-year-old Japanese man was admitted with a chief complaint of abdominal pain. He was previously healthy, and his past medical history was unremarkable. Local tenderness and rebound tenderness at McBurney's point were elicited. Abdominal roentgenography was non-diagnostic. Ultrasonography and computed tomography showed a tumor with a central core. Based on a diagnosis of appendicitis with omental inflammation or an omental tumor, laparotomy performed. Intraoperatively, no site of gastrointestinal perforation was detected; however, a 5-cm omental granuloma was identified that proved to have a fishbone nucleus on pathological examination. The postoperative course was uneventful, and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and barium enema were unremarkable. A large solitary omental pseudotumor is rare, and the clinical course in this case was atypical compared with the usual course of intestinal perforation by a foreign body and formation of an intra-abdominal granuloma.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Bone and Bones
  • Granuloma, Foreign-Body / diagnosis*
  • Granuloma, Plasma Cell* / diagnosis
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Omentum*
  • Peritoneal Diseases / diagnosis*