Deciduosis peritonei: A case report

A Fenjvesi, Slobodan Zivkovic
In: Medicinski pregled · 2005 · vol. 58(3-4) , pp. 196–199 · doi:10.2298/mpns0504196f · PMID:16526221 · W2014232587
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 5 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy Full text JSON View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-13 ⓘ

This case report describes a peritoneal nodule found during cesarean section, histologically confirmed as deciduosis peritonei, and discusses its differential diagnoses including mesothelioma, carcinoma, and melanoma.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-17 · read from full text ⓘ

This paper reports a case of peritoneal deciduosis (ectopic decidual tissue) found during laparotomy in a 32-year-old woman at 39 weeks’ gestation who underwent cesarean section for imminent fetal asphyxia. A greyish-yellow soft nodule on the parietal peritoneum was biopsied, and histology showed highly vascular decidualized polygonal cells with eosinophilic, focally vacuolated cytoplasm, infiltrated by blood and surrounded by adipose tissue necrosis with mild chronic inflammation. The authors discuss the differential diagnosis of deciduoid mesothelioma, metastatic carcinoma, and metastatic melanoma, and describe how immunohistochemistry markers (e.g., progesterone receptors, cytokeratins, calretinin, and S-100/HMB-45) can help distinguish these entities. This paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The occurrence of ectopic decidua (deciduosis) has been observed most often in the ovaries, uterus, and cervix. It has been established in approximately 90% of patients who have undergone laparotomy during pregnancy. A peritoneal localization is less frequent and usually an asymptomatic incidental finding, but is occasionally associated with massive and potentially fatal hemoperitoneum, abdominal pain and dystocia. Ectopis decidua is a physiological phenomenon of pregnancy and arises from a progesterone-induced metaplasia of subserosal stromal cells. CASE REPORT: A 32-year-old G1P1 female underwent cesarean section at 39 weeks gestation because of imminent fetal asphyxia. The laparotomy revealed a greyish-yellow soft nodule on the parietal peritoneum. On histologic examination the biopsy lesion was highly vascular and was composed of large polygonal decidualized cells with abundant eosinophilic, focally vacuolated cytoplasm. The nuclei were regular, with fine chromatin and inconspicuous nucleoli. Ectopic decidua was infiltrated by blood and surrounded with adipose tissue necrosis and mild chronic inflammation. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The differential diagnosis of peritoneal deciduosis included deciduoid mesothelioma, metastatic carcinoma (especially if decidual cells have a vacuolated cytoplasm mimicking signet-ring cells), and metastatic melanoma. Decidual cells showed immunoreactivity for vimentin and progesteron receptors and focal positivity for desmin and smooth muscle actin. The presence of cellular atypia, mitotic activity, and immunoreactivity for cytokeratin 5/6 and calretinin will assist in making the diagnosis of deciduoid mesothelioma. The diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma is assisted by the nuclear features and cytokeratin immunoreactivity. A positive immunostain for S-100 and/or HMB-45 will assist in the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma.
Full text 2,388 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · click to expand
Medicinski pregled 2005 Volume 58, Issue 3-4, Pages: 196-199 Deciduosis peritonei: A case report Fenjveši Atila (Zdravstveni centar 'Dr Gere Ištvan', Opšta bolnica Odeljenje za patologiju, Senta) Introduction The occurrence of ectopic decidua (deciduosis) has been observed most often in the ovaries, uterus, and cervix. It has been established in approximately 90% of patients who have undergone laparotomy during pregnancy. A peritoneal localization is less frequent and usually an asymptomatic incidental finding, but is occasionally associated with massive and potentially fatal hemoperitoneum, abdominal pain and dystocia. Ectopis decidua is a physiological phenomenon of pregnancy and arises from a progesterone-induced metaplasia of subserosal stromal cells. Case report A 32-year-old G1P1 female underwent cesarean section at 39 weeks gestation because of imminent fetal asphyxia. The laparotomy revealed a greyish-yellow soft nodule on the parietal peritoneum. On histologic examination the biopsy lesion was highly vascular and was composed of large polygonal decidualized cells with abundant eosinophilic, focally vacuolated cytoplasm. The nuclei were regular, with fine chromatin and inconspicuous nucleoli. Ectopic decidua was infiltrated by blood and surrounded with adipose tissue necrosis and mild chronic inflammation. Discussion and conclusion The differential diagnosis of peritoneal deciduosis included deciduoid mesothelioma, metastatic carcinoma (especially if decidual cells have a vacuolated cytoplasm mimicking signetring cells), and metastatic melanoma. Decidual cells showed immunoreactivity for vimentin and progesteron receptors and focal positivity for desmin and smooth muscle actin. The presence of cellular atypia, mitotic activity, and immunoreactivity for cy-tokeratin 5/6 and calretinin will assist in making the diagnosis of deciduoid mesothelioma. The diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma is assisted by the nuclear features and cytokeratin immunoreactivity. A positive immunostain for S-100 and/or HMB-45 will assist in the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma. . Keywords: decidua + pathology, peritoneal diseases + complications, diagnosis, differential, peritoneum + pathology https://doi.org/10.2298/MPNS0504196F Full text ( 714 KB) Cited by Živković Slobodan (Zdravstveni centar 'Dr Gere Ištvan', Opšta bolnica, Ginekološko-akušersko odeljenje, Senta)

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (8)

Cited by (5)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK