Intra-abdominal angiosarcoma developing in a capsule of a foreign body: report of a case with associated hemorrhagic diathesis.
BACKGROUND
Angiosarcoma occurs very rarely in the gastrointestinal tract and can present great diagnostic difficulty, especially when it is associated with intraabdominal abscess or granulation tissue.


METHODS
We report a case where the angiosarcoma was diagnosed after the occurrence of disseminated angiosarcoma and concurrent hemoperitoneum. The tumor developed in the fibrous capsule of a foreign body, which was possibly related to the previous appendectomy twenty years ago, and became a widely disseminated malignant neoplasm in the abdomen. After the operation, the patient's course was dominated by a fatal consumptive coagulapathy. Pathologic examination of the multiple intra-abdominal lesions showed the histological and immunohistological characteristics of the angiosarcoma.


CONCLUSIONS
Even though angiosarcoma in the gastrointestinal tract is extremely rare, when dealing with intraabdominal abscess or the gastrointestinal bleeding in patients who have undergone surgery or radiation therapy in the past, the possibility of angiosarcoma should be considered. To make the definite diagnosis of angiosarcoma and to avoid the misdiagnosis of foreign body granuloma, thorough histological examination and immunohistochemical staining may be prerequisite.
Joo
Young-Tae
YT
Department of Surgery, Gyeongsang National University Collage of Medicine, Jinju, South Korea. drjet@yahoo.co.kr
Jeong
Chi-Young
CY
Jung
Eun-Jung
EJ
Lee
Young-Joon
YJ
Hong
Soon-Chan
SC
Choi
Sang-Kyung
SK
Park
Soon-Tae
ST
Ha
Woo-Song
WS