Mesothelioma Of The Peritoneum: Report Of A Case And Review Of The Literature

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelioma Of The Peritoneum: Report Of A Case And Review Of The Literature, by J.A. Rhind, C.J.E. Wright (1949).

The study

• Authors: J.A. Rhind, C.J.E. Wright
• Published: British Journal Of Surgery 36:359-363, April (1949)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 001939. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This article reports one patient with a tumour of the peritoneum, the lining of the abdomen, described as a mesothelioma. It also reviews a selection of earlier published cases. Much of the case description is unreadable in this scanned copy. The authors described the patient as a young man with a long history of profuse ascites (fluid in the abdomen). At operation a papillary tumour was found, mainly in the omentum, a fatty fold of the abdominal lining. It contained calcospherites (tiny calcium deposits) and had spread only to a very limited extent. The authors reported immediate relief after the omentum was removed. A footnote states that at review in February 1949 he felt well and had started light work in January 1949. The authors compared the case with earlier reports they had chosen, not a complete collection, and concluded that the case as a whole appeared unique. They acknowledged that the case was incomplete without a post-mortem examination. The article does not mention asbestos.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: case report of a single patient with a selective (not complete) review of previously published cases
• Who was studied: one patient, a young man with peritoneal mesothelioma; his age, location and other details are not legible in this copy
• Main results:
  • The patient had a long history of profuse ascites.
  • The tumour was a papillary endothelioma containing calcospherites, with a very limited extent of spread.
  • The patient had immediate relief after the omentum was removed.
  • Based on X-ray evidence, the authors considered three years a very conservative estimate of how long the calcified mass removed from the pelvis had been growing.
  • A careful search during abdominal surgery found no other tumour elsewhere.
  • At review in February 1949 the patient felt well and had started light work in January 1949.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, although most of its features had been described separately before, their case as a whole appeared unique.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors acknowledged that the case was incomplete without a post-mortem examination.
  • The authors did not attempt a complete collection of cases from the literature; they selected particular reports.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Peritoneum, Ascites, Omentum, Autopsy.

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