Year: 1949
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: Infections of the uterine adnexa are extremely uncommon in the neonatal period. Raso (1942) has reported one case of salpingitis in the newborn infant. He was unable to find a similar case in the literature at that time. His patient had suffered from severe umbilical sepsis and died from peri-tonitis on the eleventh day after birth. At necropsy there was marked umbilical sepsis, peritonitis, and early bilateral bronchopneumonia in addition to hepato-splenomegaly, which the author attributed to syphilis. The left Fallopian tube was found to be enlarged to two or three times the normal size in its middle third. There was a fibrino-purulent exudate in this region. On histological examination the surface epithelium of the mucous membrane was found to be relatively intact, but the corium was the site of an acute inflammatory reaction. The regional lymphatics were also full of pus. The serous coat was involved in the general peritonitis. Streptococci were found in the affected area. The opposite tube and uterus were quite healthy. The author suggested that the sepsis had spread to the peritoneum from the umbilical area and thence to the left tube via the lymphatics. He contrasts this pathogenesis with that of gonococcal salpingitis derived from an endometritis, and considers it resembles more closely septic lymphangitis of the Fallopian tubes in adults. Dunham (1933), in a review of sepsis in the newborn, reported several cases of peritonitis but in no instance were the tubes or ovaries involved. Martz and Foote (1938) have reviewed the literature concerning pyosalpinx in women. The earliest age of onset quoted therein is fifteen years. Dodek (1933) reported one case of a ruptured ovarian cyst in a newborn infant and considers the differential diagnosis. The following case is one of neonatal pyosalpinx. It differs from the case reported by Raso (1942) in its pathogenesis but a streptococcus was isolated in this case also. Not only is the condition rare at this period, but, as will be shown, it can be a difficult one to diagnose.
Source: Archives of Disease in Childhood
Authors: A. E. Claireaux, J. W. Farquhar
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2014534048