14612              MUCOCOELE OF THE APPENDIX

The patient was a woman aged 70 who had a chronic left pyonephrosis and died of what was thought to be Wernicke's encephalopathy.

The specimen was an incidental finding at postmortem.  The appendix is completely occluded and forms a large curved dumb-bell shaped sac 12 cms in length and 4 cms across.  The occluded base of the appendix projects as a smooth rounded swelling into the lumen of the caecum.