Pseudomyxoma peritonei

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Management of pseudomyxoma peritonei” (World J Gastroenterol. 2006 Oct 14;12(38):6124-7). Authors are Qu ZB and Liu LX from the Department of General Surgery, First Clinical College of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China. Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) is a rare disease. It refers to a progressive disease process within the peritoneum which originates from the appendix or ovaries and is characterised by the production of copious amounts of mucinous fluid resulting in a “jelly belly”. If untreated the condition is fatal. The natural history of this disease has been drastically modified since the introduction of a new surgical approach defined as a peritonectomy procedure. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.