Sister mary joseph's nodule: An important physical finding

Abstract

Author(s): Parit Cai*, Joviale Christelle Maffo, Mbachan Masoeli Takere and Elroy Patrick Weledji

Background: Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule is a rare but important physical pending as it is a sign of an advanced stage of malignancy.

Case presentation: This is a case of an apparently clinically well but immune- deficient 62-year-old African woman whose main complaint was an enlarging violaceous discharging umbilical nodule. A focused history and physical examination complemented by an abdominal Computerized Tomography (CT) scan was sug-gestive of an umbilical cutaneous manifestation (Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule) of an underlying disseminated ovarian malignancy. This was confirmed histologically by an excision biopsy of the umbilical nodule.

Conclusion: Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule is an important differential diagnosis for an umbilical nodular lesion as it is a sign of advanced malignancy with a generally poor prognosis. 

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