Umbilical endometriosis elucidates cause of recurrent pneumothorax

Umbilical Nodule with Cyclical Bleeding: A Case Report and Literature Review of Atypical Endometriosis

“…Endometriosis is mostly located in the pelvis but can also be encountered at nearly any organ of the body, as the lungs, bowel, ureter, brain, inguinal canal, and abdominal wall [ 3 , 26 – 28 ]. The symptoms most frequently associated with endometriosis are pelvic pain, dysmenorrhoea, dyspareunia, and subfertility/infertility [ 24 , 25 , 29 ]. Its pathogenesis is not completely understood and multiple theories have been proposed to explain it: implantation of endometrial cells through retrograde menstruation (endometrial tissue is transported during menstruations from the uterus through the fallopian tubes, therefore gaining access to and implanting on pelvic structures (the implantation or retrograde menstruation theory) [ 3 ]), haematogenous or lymphatic dissemination of endometrial cells (the dissemination theory), ectopic differentiation of pluripotent peritoneal progenitor cells to endometrial tissue (coelomic metaplasia theory) [ 3 , 24 , 25 , 30 ], production of substances to form endometriosis by sloughed endometrium (the induction theory), specific stimulation to a Müllerian origin cell nest producing endometriosis (the embryonic rest theory), and proliferation of ectopic endometrial cells produced by alterations in cell-mediated and humoral immunity (the cellular immunity theory) [ 3 ].…”

An unusual case of asymptomatic spontaneous umbilical endometriosis treated with skin-sparing excision

“…It is a common, oestrogen-dependent condition, affecting 5–10% of women in the reproductive age [8]. Endometriosis is associated with a wide range of symptoms, most commonly pelvic pain, dysmenorrhoea, dyspareunia and subfertility/infertility [5, 8]. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed for its aetiology, but its pathogenesis still remains unclear.…”

“…The presence of concurrent abdominal masses or previous history of endometriosis was also common in most cases, with imaging of the lesions, in almost all reported cases, showing intraperitoneal extension [1–4, 6, 7]. Extremely rare conditions such as recurrent catamenial pneumothorax have also been described [5]. …”