Pancreatic endometrioma : a rare differential diagnosis for a pseudocyst

Abstract

Pancreatic endometriosis is extremely rare with only 14 cases reported in the medical literature and its diagnosis on radiological imaging poses a great challenge. We report a case of a 31-year-old female patient with recurrent admissions for pancreatitis of unknown aetiology and no relevant previous medical history. Sectional imaging showed a cystic lesion in the tail of the pancreas and the diagnosis of a post-pancreatitis pseudocyst or a less likely pre-malignant mucinous cystadenoma was considered. On post-robotic resection of the pancreatic cyst, the histopathology analysis was positive for endometrial stroma. Pancreatic endometriosis although rare should be considered as a differential diagnosis for cystic lesions especially in patients who are known to have pelvic endometriosis. Nevertheless, the gold standard for the definite diagnosis of pancreatic endometriosis remains histopathological.