"Boiled egg" discovered in human stomach that can survive for 20 years

Doctors were shocked to discover a tumor in the stomach of a 62-year-old man that looked exactly like a large boiled egg, and it had been tormenting him for the past 20 years.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the elderly male patient had been visiting the hospital with symptoms of urinary incontinence for more than 20 years. Doctors performed a general physical examination of his health and sent samples to the lab, but found nothing unusual.

However, when performing a CT scan of the patient's abdomen, doctors discovered a "huge" tumor compressing his bladder. A tiny specialized camera was inserted into the patient's abdomen and then revealed that the tumor was "solid, smooth and elastic like rubber, floating freely".

The size of the tumor was determined to be up to 10cm in length and about 7.5cm in width. Its weight reached 220g, heavier than a medium-sized orange.

According to experts, the mass, which resembles a large boiled egg, is a peritoneal liquefaction. It is believed to form when the omental appendix or mantle of fat (the rolled-up pockets of fat wrapped in the lining of the intestine) untwists, becomes detached and loose. They then transform into fibrous tumors and become calcified.

In previous articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors said that any liquid tumor larger than 5cm wide is very rare and only a few such cases have ever been recorded in world medical history.

Peritoneal effusions usually do not cause symptoms when they are small. However, when they grow large enough, they can block the intestines, compress the bladder, causing urinary retention or, in this case, the need to urinate frequently.

After undergoing surgery to remove the strange tumor, the male patient no longer felt the need to urinate frequently.

Doctors stained the tumor with blue ink to see its different layers. They found that the tumor consisted of a central layer of fibrous tissue, protein, and fiber. Surrounding it was a ring of calcified tissue. The structure of the tumor actually looked a bit like a hard-boiled egg, with the white surrounding the yolk.

According to Daily Mail