Thoracic endometriosis with a long delay in diagnosis

Vol. 56 No. 1, 2015

ROMANIAN JOURNAL of MORPHOLOGY and EMBRYOLOGY

Roxana Maria Nemes, Cristian Paleru, Olga Danaila, Edith Simona Ianosi, Corina Silvia Pop, Damian Ditescu, Costin Teodor Streba, Mimi Floarea Nitu

This paper describes a case of thoracic endometriosis in 36-year-old woman with a long delay in diagnosis. At the admission in the hospital, the patient had a medical history of persistent dysmenorrhea since the age of 13, infertility and an episode of total right pneumothorax two months ago successfully resolved by minimum pleurotomy of the right hemitorax. She came with moderate pain on right hemithorax and dyspnea, which occurred on the first day of menstruation but she did not have any other respiratory symptoms such as hemoptysis, cough. Radiological imaging (chest radiography and computer tomography) at the time of admission confirmed recurrence of the right pneumothorax. She underwent surgical treatment of the right pneumothorax using a single-port video-assisted approach. Intraoperative macroscopic lesions were found catamenial pneumothorax characteristic diagnosis and biopsy material taken (parietal pleura) for histopathology. Immunohistochemical tests confirmed the diagnosis of thoracic endometriosis. The gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue was received by the patient early after surgery and there was no clinical or radiological recurrence at a four months follow-up.

Corresponding author: Cristian Paleru, MD; e-mail: cpaleru@gmail.com

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