A CLINICAL-STUDY ON PSEUDOMYXOMA PERITONEI

To elucidate the clinical entity of pseudomyxoma peritonei, nine patie nts (male:female = 6:3) who had been treated in Chang Gung Memorial Ho spital in the past 13 years were reviewed. The male patients with orig inal appendiceal tumour were older than the male patients with origina l colon cancer or indefinite tumour (70, 67 and 67 years vs 42, 27 and 50 years). In addition, the former group survived in a disease-free s tatus for 28 months on average, while the latter group died within 2 y ears. Echogenic ascites and diffuse low-attenuation intra-abdominal ma sses with scalloping on the surface of liver detected by ultrasonograp hy and by computerized tomography, respectively, were found in most of the patients. Elevation of the serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) d uring recurrence of the disease was also noted. This series suggested that: (i) the pre-operative diagnosis could be made with careful physi cal examination in conjunction with sonography or computerized tomogra phy; (ii) the prognosis was better in patients with tumour of appendic eal origin; and (iii) serum CEA might be valuable for early detection of recurrence.