Object numberGC.10350
DescriptionLymphangeioma of Epididymis.
From a male aged 51 years. Eight years previously he received a blow on the testis with a drill. There was swelling of the testis and pain in the groin which persisted for a considerable period. He noted about this time, a minute nodule at the back of the testicle. This nodule very slowly enlarged and eventually caused him to seek advice. At operation a well defined tumour in the upper part of the epididymis was easily shelled out except at one part where it was adherent to the surrounding fibrous tissue.
Half the tumour is shown and measures 1.5 cm. by 1.0 cm. The surface is even but not smooth and consists of dense collagenous fibrous tissue. The cut surface is pale, partly due to fixation in formaldehyde. With the aid of a pocket-lens the tumour tissue presents a finely whorled. appearance, suggestive of a fibroma.
Microsections, however, reveal the tumour to be a lymphangeioma. “The lymphangiomatous structure is capillary, not cavernous in type and the lymph channels are evenly distributed throughout the defined nodule, lying mainly perivascular. The lining endothelium is mostly flattened and single layered - in some of the channels it tends to be multilayered and. form small ‘knobs’ projecting into the lumen, pushed forward by minute drops of lymph collected between the cells and the fibrous tissue surround. Careful search reveals no mitotic figures. The tissue has all the appearances of an angiomatous formation, but not haemangeiomatous. The lymphatic genesis is supported by the perivascular layout, the sparse lymphocytic cell content of some of the spaces and. aggregations of lymphocytes scattered through the tissue, suggestive of interference with drainage associated with the growth.” (Dr. E.K. Dawson).
Object nameTESTIS
Object categoryAnatomical, specimen