Method
We present the case of a 30 year old female
patient with history of miscarriage, who refers voiding dis-
turbances with menstruations. Vaginal ultrasound showed
an exophytic bladder lesion, which was confirmed by cis -
toscopy. Endoscopic resection was indicated.
Arch. Esp. Urol. 2009; 62 (2): 150-152
Resumen.- OBJETIVO: Descripción de un nuevo caso de
mullerianosis vesical.
MÉTODO: Presentamos el caso de una paciente mujer de
30 años con antecedentes de aborto, que refiere moles -
tias miccionales coincidiendo con las menstruaciones. Una
ecografía vaginal demostró la existencia de lesión exofíti -
ca vesical, confirmada posteriormente por cistoscopia. Se
indicó resección transuretral.
RESULTADOS: En el estudio histopatológico de los tejidos
obtenidos se objetivó un componente glandular mixto de
tipo predominantemente tubárico, con elementos endome -
triales y endocervicales asociados. No evidencia de reci -
diva endoscópica tras un año de seguimiento.
CONCLUSIONES: Aportamos un nuevo caso de mulleria-
nosis vesical. Destacamos el escaso número de casos pu -
blicados. Defendemos la opción quirúrgica endoscópica
en estas pacientes.
Introduction
Bladder endometriosis, as an example of ectopic gyne -
cological tissue, is a well known entity in Urology, despi-
te of a relatively limited amount of reports. What urolo -
gists usually have less knowledge about is the possibility
- although in unfrequent fashion - of association between
endocervical and tubaric epithelium at the same patient,
as in the following case.
CASE REPORT
We report the case of a 30 years old woman, smoker
of six cigarettes per day, with history of miscarriage two
and a half years before being studied by the Ginecolo -
gy department for infertility. In this context, during the
performance of a vaginal ecography, an exophytic in -
travesical lesion was detected, aproximately 24 mm in
Palabras clave: Mullerianosis. Vejiga. Cirugía.
Keywords
Mullerianosis. Bladder. Surgery.
Results
The pathological study of tissues obtained showed
mixed glandular structures with predominant tubaric-like
type, in association with endometrial- and endocervical-like
elements. No evidence of endoscopic relapse after one
year of follow-up.
Conclusions
We contribute with a new case of
bladder mullerianosis. We emphasize the scarcity of its pu-
blished reports. We support the option of an endoscopic
surgery for these patients.
diameter, and located at right posterolateral wall, with
tabications inside (Figure 1).
She was sent to the Urology department, where she re -
ferred certain voiding disturbances coinciding with men-
struations, without macroscopic haematuria nor other
accompanying manifestations. Blood laboratory values
were normal, and urine test showed 18 rbc/ mL as sin -
gle significant outcome. An intravenous pielography
was indicated, without abnormal findings; and cistosco-
py was performed as well, showing an exophitic lesion,
an endoscopic field in size, located at right posterior
bladder wall, with pseudocystic surface.
Transurethral resection of that lesion was indicated,
achieved in a complete fashion, and with good posto -
peratory evolution. The pathological study showed a
bladder wall coated with focally hyperplastic endothe -
lium, as well as morphologically predominant tubaric-
like glandular structures inside the lamina propria and
muscular layer, and less frequent endometrial and endo-
cervical-like components, what matched with the diagno-
se of bladder mullerianosis (Figures 2 y 3).
After one year of follow-up, our patient remains symptom-
free, and with no evidence of endoscopic relapse at
checkups performed afterwards.
Discussion
Mullerian implants at urinary bladder is a fact with sig -
nificant report availability throughout urological literatu-
re. With difference, the most frequent entity comprises
presence of endometrial rests - endometriosis -, and its
spanish published series has been recently compiled in
FIGURA 1. Transvaginal ultrasonography showing an
exophytic intravesical lesion.
151MULLERIANOSIS OF THE URINARY BLADDER: A RARE ENTITY
a throrough fashion (1). however, faced with the descrip-
tion of accompanying endocervical- and/ or endosal -
pingial-like bladder implants in some patients, the term
“mullerianosis” was established by Young y Clement (2),
being defined as the combination of at least two of those
mentioned tissue types.
The variant comprising simultaneous endometrial, endo-
cervical and endosalpingial rests, like in our case re -
port, has scarcely described, usually in form of single
case, apart from the mentioned 1996 original publica -
tion. The same as an isolated endometrial form, its origin
has been subject of several theories, two of which may
be emphasized nowadays: firstly, the possibility of an
implant from extraurinary origin leaving the correspon -
ding ginecological organs is suggested (3); however,
existence of simultaneous mullerian tissue from different
anatomical origin, frequently located at hormonosensiti-
ve bladder areas such as posterior wall, can support a
potential metaplastic tissular mechanism for that entity
(4), and a growing amount of authors agree with this
last option (5,6).
The most frequent clinical reported manifestations of
mullerianosis are irritative voiding symptoms (7) and
haematuria (8), affecting female patients througout the
third or early fourth decades of life, and usually linked to
menstruation cycle. This unspecific sintomatology makes
image-based diagnosis - specially ultrasonography - and
cistoscopy, necessary to confirm or not the presence of
bladder lesion. A pseudocystic endoscopic look raises
the differential diagnosis with other entities (8) such as
cystic/ glandular cystopathy or isolated endometriosis
- especially in this last case because of a chocolate-like
liquid content when cutting its surface. Final diagnosis of
mullerianosis is based on pathological study of obtained
FIGURA 2. Bladder wall containing glandular structures
with predominant tubaric-like morphology (H & E; x 10).
Detail from these structures (bottom right) (H & R; x 20).
tissues (2), showing - in several proportions according
to the different cases - glandular structures coated with a
single layer of column-like endometrial-type epithelium,
endocervical-type – with cilia and mucinous secretion -,
and tubaric-type - with pseudopapilar structures -. Fre -
quent invasion of deeper layers of the bladder wall is
a distinguising feature of mullerian implants compared
with other benign lesions such as nephrogenic adenoma
and the abovementioned cystic/ glandular cystopathy
(8).
We support the endoscopical surgical option from a do-
uble point of view: diagnostic and therapeutical effec -
tiveness, as reported by other authors (7,8). Adyuvant
hormonotherapy was not considered in our case cause
o an apparently complete resection of the lesion, the
patient´s persistent wish of pregnancy in a short-term, as
well as pathological predominance of non-endometrial
mullerian glands, theoretically less hormonosensitive (9).
The relapse of the lesion has not been yet reported, al -
though its follow-up is recommended because of its logi-
cal absence of data based on large series, especially if
a report showing a case complicated with endometrioid
carcinoma (10) is taken into account.
Conclusion
Mullerianosis represents an entity that, in spite of its un -
frequency, should be considered among those differen -
tial diagnosis for benign bladder lesions. The scarcity of
reports makes the future publication of a growing num -
ber of cases be necessary for better knowledge of its
main features and natural history.
FIGURA 3. Associated endometrial-like (H & E; x 20) and
endocervical-like (bottom right) (H & E; x 20) components.
152 N. A. Cruz Guerra, M. D. Gómez Raposo, María J. Baizán García et al.
Pastor Navarro H, Donate Moreno MJ, Giménez
Bachs J M et al. Endometriosis vesical. Revisión
de la literatura, con especial referencia a la españo -
la y aportación de dos nuevos casos. Arch Esp Urol
2006; 59: 111-22.
Young RH, Clement PB. Müllerianosis of the urina-
ry bladder. Mod Pathol 1996; 9: 731-737.
Javert CT. Pathogenesis of endometriosis based on
endometrial homeoplasia, direct extension, exfolia -
tion and implantation, lymphatic and hematogenous
metastasis including 5 cases reports of endometrial
tissue in pelvic lymph nodes. Cancer 1949; 2: 399-
410.
Krestchmer HI. Endometriosis of the bladder. J Urol
1945, 53: 459-65.
Batt RE, Smith RA, Buck Louis GM, et al. Mülleria-
nosis. Histol Histopathol 2007; 22: 1161-1166.
Koren J, Mensikova J, Mukensnabl P, et al. Mulle -
rianosis of the urinary bladder: report of a case with
suggested metaplastic origin. Virchows Arch 2006;
449: 268-271.
Tomada N, Silva J, Vendeira P, et al. [Bladder mu -
llerianosis: a case report]. Acta Urológica 2006; 23:
59-61.
Kim HJ, Lee TJ, Kim MK, et al. Muellerianosis of
the urinary bladder, endocervicosis type: a case re -
port. J Korean Med Sci 2001; 16: 123-126.
Cao ZY , Eppenberger U, Roos W, et al. Cytosol es-
trogen and progesterone receptor levels measured
in normal and pathological tissue of endometrium,
endocervical mucosa and cervical vaginal portion.
Arch Gynecol 1983; 233: 109-119.
Garavan F, Grainger R, Jeffers M. Endometrioid car-
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References
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(*of special interest, **of outstanding interest)
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