Sister Mary Joseph and her nodule: historical and clinical perspective.
Sister Mary Joseph's nodule is referred to a metastatic lesion of the umbilicus originating from intra-abdominal or pelvic malignant disease. Metastases from other locations have been also reported. In 1949 the English surgeon Sir Hamilton Bailey coined this term after Sister Mary Joseph (1856-1939), a superintendent nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, who was the first to observe the association between the umbilical nodule and intra-abdominal malignancy. In this article, we discuss both the historical and clinical perspectives of Sister Mary Joseph's nodule.
Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Mohannad
M
Abu-Hilal
James S
JS
Newman
D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000266:history / Q000473:pathology*; D004850:Eponyms; D006676:History of Nursing; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D010386:Pelvic Neoplasms / Q000266:history / Q000473:pathology*; D014472:Umbilicus / Q000473:pathology*; D014481:United States