A Case Report of Mesenteric Fibromatosis Presenting as a Submucosal Tumor of the Transverse Colon

Takehiro Ohta, Hideki Matsuyama*, Hiroshi Masuda*, Hideo Tezuka*, Yuuji Sugiyama*, Chifumi Maruyama

Department of Surgery, The Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical College
*Department of Surgery, Itabashi Central General Hospital

We experienced a case of spontaneous mesenteric fibromatosis without Gardner's syndrome or previous abdominal surgery. A 69-year-old man presented with a hard movable mass, about 4 cm in diameter, in the umbilical region. Barium enema and colonoscopy showed a submucosal tumor of the transverse colon and an operation was performed. The tumor, 45×40×30 mm in size, elastic hard in consistency, arising from mesenterium of the small intestine and firmly attached to the transverse colon, was excised with a segment of the transverse colon and the jejunum. The pathological diagnosis of the tumor was mesenteric fibromatosis. It is rare for this tumor, only 14 cases have been described in the Japanse literature, with mesenteric fibromatosis to occur in a patient without Gardner's syndrome or an episode of previous abdominal surgery. It is well known that mesenteric fibromatosis often develops into a local necurrence especially in patients with Gardner's syndrome whereas it is reported that the recurrence rate of spontaneous mesenteric fibromatosis is reportedly low. Our patients is still alive and has been recurrence free for more than a year.

Key words
mesenteric fibromatosis, desmoid tumor, submucosal tumor of the colon

Reprint requests
Takehiro Ohta Department of Surgery, The Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical College
8-1 Kawadacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8666 JAPAN

Accepted
February 12, 1998

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