VARIOUS types of mediastinal and pericardial cysts have been described and reviewed in the literature. However, Lambert1 was first to offer a simple embryologic explanation of the pericardial celomic cyst, which served to correlate all the conflicting and confusing data on thin-walled cystic lesions of the anterior mediastinum.
The following presentation illustrates an interesting case of pericardial celomic cyst treated successfully by surgical excision.
REPORT OF CASE
M. R., a 31 year old white man, was admitted to the Veterans Administration Hospital, Des Moines, Iowa, on May 18, 1948. In February 1946 a routine roentgenogram of the chest had disclosed a well circumscribed mass present in the left lower pulmonary field. A diaphragmatic hernia was suspected, inasmuch as there were no pulmonary symptoms, but roentgenograms of the gastrointestinal tract failed to substantiate such a diagnosis. During the ensuing two year period repeated roentgenograms of the chest showed essentially no