Umbilical cord hernia mimicking a cord teratoma.

BACKGROUND

Most umbilical cord masses detected by sonography are angiomyxomas, hematomas, or teratomas. Cord teratomas arise from totipotent stem cells and contain tissue from the three germ-cell layers. Tumour components are foreign to surrounding tissue and may have a polymorphic presentation.

CASE

We report a case of a suspected umbilical cord teratoma, identified by sonographic and magnetic resonance imaging, which in fact camouflaged an umbilical cord hernia. The natural history of an omphalocele and umbilical cord hernia dictates the presence of such anterior abdominal wall defects by approximately 12 weeks' gestation, once the gut returns from the peritoneal space within the umbilical stalk to the peritoneal cavity. Adipose tissue is not described as a classic finding in an omphalocele or umbilical cord hernia.

CONCLUSION

Our case of umbilical cord hernia is the first described as strictly distal to, and not contained within, the abdominal wall cord insertion site, and to contain fat, thereby mimicking a cord teratoma.