After a thorough review of English literature, we found only 9 previously reported cases of mucinous cystadenoma of the
urachus, including a case we recently encountered.
Miller, "Imaging of the
urachus: anomalies, complications, and mimics," RadioGraphic, vol.
Most of the
urachus pathologies are found incidentally, and, with the increasing use of cross-sectional imaging, they have become more frequently diagnosed [3].
During fetal life, the
urachus communicates with the cloaca and extends from the bladder to the navel; however, in adults, it has atrophied to become a cord-like structure.
A review from January 1933 until June 2016 of all reported pediatric cases of UL RMS, including as search criteria UL, RMS,
urachus, and umbilical arteries, was performed.
The
urachus is a tubular structure that connects the bladder to the allantois in the embryonic development, involuting after the third trimester, into a fibromuscular tract or closed canal between the dome of urinary bladder and the umbilicus.
[1] These include undescended testes, ambiguous genitalia, hydronephrosis, bladder extrophy, cloacal extrophy, patent
urachus, polycystic kidneys, hypospadias, bifid scrotum, posterior urethral valves, absent kidney, horseshoe kidney, renal cyst and epispadias.
The supravesical fossa is the area of abdominal wall between remnant of
urachus (Median umbilical ligament) and remnant of left or right umbilical artery (medial umbilical ligament).
Patients who had abdominal wall defects including omphalitis, omphalocele, gastroschisis, and patent
urachus, severe problems including peritonitis, necrotizing enterocolitis, hydrops fetalis, and significant congential anomalies, and those in whom catheters were inadvertently placed in the umbilical artery instead of the umbilical vein were not included in the study.
Congenital urinary tract anomalies in farm animals are rare, with patent
urachus, hypospadias, and renal agenesis being the most reported [9].
The
urachus is an embryological structure that rarely persists in adults, but may be a site of malignancy.