A Case of Lymphangioma of the Lesser Omentum

Ken-ichi Ito, Shigeyoshi Kumeda, Takehiko Iwasa, Toshio Hori, Masao Makiuchi

Department of Surgery, Matsumoto National Hospital

We report a case of lymphangioma of the lesser omentum with a review of the literature. The patient was a 37-year-old woman who visited the hospital with a complaint of abdominal fullness. Ultrasonography and computed tomography of the upper abdomen indicated a multilocular cyst extending from the left lobe of the liver. The patient was diagnosed as having a huge liver cyst, and laparotomy was performed. The operation disclosed a multilocular tumor which was not adherent to the liver but rather to the lesser curvature of the stomach. We considered that the tumor originated from the lesser omentum. The tumor was 19.5×13.5×10.0 cm in size, 940 g in weight. Histopathological diagnosis revealed a lymphangioma. Lymphangioma of the lesser omentum is a relatively rare disease, and to date only 22 cases have been reported in the Japanese literature, including our case. There was only one case of lymphangioma diagnosed definitely before laparotomy, although typical findings are obtained from preoperative imaging diagnosis in most cases. Clinical aspects of these cases are also discussed in this paper.

Key words
lymphangioma of the lesser omentum

Reprint requests
Ken-ichi Ito Department of Surgery, Matsumoto National Hospital
1209 Yoshikawamuraimachi, Matsumoto, 399 JAPAN

Accepted
July 6, 1992

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