Idiopathic chylous peritonitis mimicking acute appendicitis A case report.

We report an uncommon case of idiopathic acute chylous peritonitis mimicking an acute appendicitis in a 30-year-old female patient with a 2-day history of abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Chylous ascites is a rare form of ascites characterized by the presence of a milky fluid rich in triglycerides. It occurs as a result of a damage to the lymphatic system due to trauma or other benign and malignant pathologies. Although the most common clinical presentation is progressive painless abdominal distension, less frequently it can cause acute abdomen symptoms. The management is based on identifying and treating the underlying pathology. Aspiration of the fluid and drainage are the only therapy required if a clinically diagnosis cannot be made. Surgical laparoscopic exploration is necessary to make a diagnosis and to treat effectively acute abdomen cases.In the absence of a significant determining pathology, we talk about idiopathic chylous peritonitis. KEY WORDS: Chylous ascites, peritonitis, laparoscopy.

Case Report: Metastatic breast cancer to the gallbladder.

Cholecystitis is one of the leading causes of emergency surgical interventions; the occurrence of metastases to the gallbladder is rare and has only been reported in the literature exceptionally. Metastatic breast cancer to the gallbladder is even less frequent; in fact, breast cancer usually metastasizes to bone, lung, lymph nodes, liver and brain. We report the case of an 83-year-old female patient with a previous history of breast surgery with axillary dissection in 1997, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy due to invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast. The patient was admitted at the emergency department for sepsis and an episode of acute kidney failure, anuria and fever. Right-upper quadrant abdominal pain triggered by food intake and abdominal tenderness was also present, placing the diagnostic suspicion of biliary sepsis due to acute cholecystitis. The histological examination of the surgical specimen highlighted the presence of metastasis from an infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma with positive hormone receptors. We also report here the results of a review of the literature looking at articles describing cases of gallbladder metastasis from breast cancer.