Ovarian malignancies with cytologically negative pleural and peritoneal effusions: demons' or meigs' pseudo-syndromes?

ABSTRACT

The authors reviewed the original reports of the association of malignant ovarian tumors with cytologically negative pleural and peritoneal effusions, commonly known as Meigs' pseudo-syndrome and challenged the recent attribution of this disease to Demons. They underlined the historical and clinical interest of the reports of Demons and Meigs and concluded that the term pseudo-Meigs' syndrome, and not pseudo-Demons' syndrome, must be used for malignant ovarian lesions with effusions with negative cytology because Demons did not describe a similar syndrome caused by malignant tumors.