The clinical and pathologic manifestations of iatrogenically produced mesothelium-rich fragments of operative debris.
OBJECTIVE
This report describes the clinical manifestations that may be associated with the amalgams of mesothelium and other debris which can be created iatrogenically when body cavities are opened or otherwise physically disturbed.


METHODS
One autopsy and four surgical pathology cases are reviewed. Three of the studied patients had had recent cardiac surgery, one a laparotomy, and the fifth a thoracotomy.


RESULTS
The series of five patients in this report demonstrates a wide range of manifestations when these tissue and debris amalgams are created. If the fragments gain an ingress to the vasculature, they may embolize and cause infarcts; if the origin of the amalgams is unappreciated, they may be confused with neoplasms; in other circumstances, the amalgams may represent incidental accompaniments of surgical specimens.


CONCLUSIONS
Pathologists and clinicians should be aware of this recently described entity; only in the last couple of years has its pathogenesis been recognized. This report reviews an, until now, undescribed broad spectrum of clinical manifestations of these amalgams of iatrogenically created mesothelial and other operative debris.
Walley
V M
VM
Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ontario, Canada.
Peters
H J
HJ
Veinot
J P
JP
Courtice
R W
RW
Venance
S L
SL
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004617:Embolism / Q000473:pathology*; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007049:Iatrogenic Disease; D007238:Infarction / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000473:pathology*; D013908:Thoracotomy; D014781:Viscera / Q000098:blood supply