Clinical and pathological report of a case of cavernous lymphangioma of the subcutaneous tissue of the forearm : (under the care of Professor Chiene) / by Harold J. Stiles.
- Harold Stiles
- Date:
- 1893
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Clinical and pathological report of a case of cavernous lymphangioma of the subcutaneous tissue of the forearm : (under the care of Professor Chiene) / by Harold J. Stiles. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![appear to be any evidence of a new formation of lymphatics. The true lymphangiomata are no doubt always congenital. They are either cavernous or cystic, the latter often resulting from the former by a more cystic dilatation of the spaces, and a breaking down of the intervening trabecuke. All transitions, therefore, are met with between the typical cavernous and cystic varieties. The most familiar examples of the cystic variety are the congenital hygromata of the neck. Of the 18 cases detailed by Nasse, 3 are described as cavernous lymphangiomata of the subcutaneous tissue. Their naked-eye and microscopic structure appear to be similar to our own case; no mention, however, is made of the presence of non-striped muscular fibres. The walls of the cavernous spaces are stated to consist of endothelial cells alone, or with the addition of connective tissue containing spindle- shaped nuclei. It is possible that these nuclei belong really to non-striped muscle fibres, the presence of which may readily be overlooked unless a differential staining method be employed. Under the name angiomyoma, Ziegler (15) describes and figures a tumour of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, the growth consisting largely of non-striped muscle derived from the muscular walls of thickened and pathologically new-formed blood-vessels. In our own tumour the amount of non-striped muscle is not sufficient to warrant the term myoma. The presence of muscular tissue in our own case is not without significance, as it enables us to differentiate the condition from simple lymphangiectasis. We have strong grounds, therefore, for regarding it as a tumour, which in its origin, growth, and structure is closely analogous to a subcutaneous venous angioma. All that can be said regarding its nature is, that it consists of a congenital over- growth, and dilatation of lymphatics, with proliferation of the muscular fibres of their walls, depending upon “ an excess and want of due restraint of that developmental force by which the several organs and structures acquire and maintain their proper dimensions and relations to one another ” [Sir George Murray Humphry (12)]. Of the cause of the developmental disturbance we know nothing. The manner in which the lym- phatic overgrowth takes place in lymphangiomata is, as we](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22380188_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
