A Case of Abscess in Omentum suspected due to Infected Urachal Remnant Tissue

Chihiro Tanaka, Naoki Yokoo, Katsuaki Ura, Kouichirou Hata, Tatsushi Kato, Takami Fukui, Hisaya Azuma, Takashi Shiroko, Tetsuya Yamaguchi and Kiyohisa Okamoto^*

Department of Surgery, Department of Pathology^*, Takayama Red Cross Hospital

A 18-year-old was admitted to our hospital because of abdominal pain and high fever. Abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography showed a cystic mass about 6 cm in diameter, lying near the peritoneum at the midline of the lower abdomen. Following the diagnosis of an infected urachal cyst, resection of the cystic tumor was performed. Adhesions were observed between the rectus abdominis muscle and the peritoneum, and some urachal remnant tissue was found between them. The tumor was an abscess localized by the omentum and adhering tightly to the peritoneum just behind the urachal remnant tissue, which did not have any pathway to the surrounding organs incliding the transverse colon. Because the tumor existed near the dorsal region of the urachal tissue, it was supposed that the infection of the urachal remnant tissue developed into the peritoneal cavity and formed an abscess localized by the omentum, which was confermed by histological examination. It is very seldom, if even, seen that an infected urachal cyst penetrates the abdominal wall and reaches the peritoneal cavity. A localized abscess formation by the omentum caused by an infected urachal remnant tissue has never been reported so far.

Key words
infected urachal remnant tissue, abscess in omentum

Reprint requests
Chihiro Tanaka Department of Surgery, Takayama Red Cross Hospital 3-11 Tenman-Cho, Takayama, 506-0025 JAPAN

Accepted
September 22, 1999

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.