Thoracic Endometriosis

Abstract

Endometriosis was first described by Russel more than one-hundred years ago and still remains a clinical entity of difficult comprehension, with totally aberrant symptomatology, particulary in extra-genital situations. The present article describes a clinical case of recurring right-sided catamenial pneumothorax in a 45 year-old caucasian woman. In her last episode of right chest pain the X-ray film showed, besides, the presence of a pneumothorax, a nodular image, later identified by CT scan as being a transdiaphragmatic hernia with hepatic content. The patient was then submitted to diagnostic and therapeutic thoracotomy and the diaphragmatic endometriosis was confirmed. Finally, a total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingoophorectomy was performed and the patient's condition remained uneventful with combined hormone therapy. The clinical presentation, pathogenesis, and therapeutic resolution of this nosological entity are briefly discussed.