A Rare Cause of Acute Abdomen in A Child: Infected Mesenteric Cyst

Abstract

Mesenteric cysts are rare lesions and they are usually asymptomatic. Acute abdomen caused by infection of cyst is a very rare complication. We present a child with mesenteric cyst who presented acute abdomen and was treated with total cystectomy. Although mesenteric cysts are usually asymptomatic, they may cause serious complications. So, even if they are asymptomatic and diagnosed incidentally, these cysts should be closely monitored and surgical treatment should be considered for large cysts.

Omental Cyst Presenting as an Acute Abdomen in a Pediatric Patient: A Case Report

“…The cysts can either be unilocular or multilocular and they may contain hemorrhagic, serous, chylous, or infected fluid. [7][8][9] In our patient, it was huge, (most possibly the largest from the omentum so far), unilocular, and containing thin hemorrhagic fluid.…”

“…These cysts may be detected pre-operatively or intra-operatively incidentally when complicated with infection, torsion, or infarction in patients presenting with acute abdominal pain, abdominal distention, or ascites. 4,7 The diagnosis of an omental cyst was made incidentally intra-operatively in our patient. Presentations with severe anemia, massive ascites, and teratomatous cyst were also reported, 8 none of which was there in our patient.…”

“…An accurate preoperative diagnosis of omental cysts is usually difficult and a correct preoperative diagnosis was reported in less than a quarter of the cases. 7 Radiological imaging modalities are helpful in diagnosing omental cysts preoperatively but might be difficult to obtain right away in resource-limited settings. Like most of the cases, we did not diagnose an omental cyst as the cause of the acute abdomen preoperatively because we did not do any imaging test (it was not When the diagnosis is made pre-operatively, open surgical excision is preferred over laparoscopic excision in order to avoid the risk of rupture and spreading of the cyst contents.…”