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Case Reports
. 2018 Oct 5;12(1):285.
doi: 10.1186/s13256-018-1828-3.

Burkitt lymphoma of the ovaries mimicking sepsis: a case report and review of the literature

Athanasios Gravos  1 , Konstantinos Sakellaridis  2 , Paraskeui Tselioti  2 , Konstantina Katsifa  2 , Varvara Grammatikopoulou  2 , Aikaterini Nodarou  2 , Κonstantinos Sarantos  2 , Alexandros Tourtoglou  2 , Eirini Tsovolou  2 , Charilaos Tsapas  2 , Athanasios Prekates  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Burkitt lymphoma of the ovaries mimicking sepsis: a case report and review of the literature

Athanasios Gravos et al. J Med Case Rep. .

Abstract

Background: It is not unusual for systemic diseases to mimic sepsis and, in any case, the clinician should thoroughly investigate this possibility.

Case presentation: We present the case of a 21-year-old Greek woman who presented to the Intensive Care Unit of our hospital with severe septic shock - multiple organ failure as a result of a suspected gynecological infection of the ovaries. An immediate improvement of her clinical condition in combination with strong clinical suspicion and negative cultures led to the differential diagnosis of diseases other than sepsis. Based on the results of the biopsies that were obtained by research laparotomy, our patient suffered from primary Burkitt ovarian lymphoma. Her clinical condition improved with supportive treatment and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the dominant treatment for Burkitt's lymphoma, while surgery or radiotherapy has no place.

Conclusions: All intensivists should be aware of clinical conditions that mimic sepsis as early diagnosis can lead to appropriate therapy and avoid unnecessary diagnostic tests and antibiotic abuse.

Keywords: Burkitt’s lymphoma; Ovaries; Septic shock.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Ethics Committee of Tzaneio General Hospital of Piraeus approved and gave consent for this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient to participate. We have also obtained consent to publish from the participant to report individual patient data.

Consent for publication

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Image of the ovaries of the patient from the computed tomography scan
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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