AXILLARY TERATOMA 



By P. K. Oilman 



(From the Philippine General Hospital and the College of Medicine and 

 Surgery, University of the Philippines) 



Two plates 



While numerous examples of embryomata occurring in the 

 more frequently involved portions of the body are constantly 

 being reported, a review of the available literature fails to reveal 

 a similar case to the one here described. 



Teratomata are tumors frequently containing a number of dif- 

 ferent forms of tissue, bone, teeth, hair, skin, muscle, and glands. 

 They are more frequently found at the lower end of the spine 

 where the division occurs between the neural and gut portions 

 of the neuroenteric tube, about the head, and in the generative 

 organs. Tissue derived from any or all of the three layers 

 of the blastoderm occurs in these tumors, and a preponderance 

 of any one type of tissue in the growth has led not only to a 

 classification of these growths, but, previous to the work of Wilms, 

 to some confusion as well. 



The work of Wilms (i) in 1895 and in 1899 on dermoid cysts 

 of the ovary did a great deal to clear up many questions con- 

 cerning the anatomical peculiarities of these tumors and render 

 their grouping possible. He showed these tumors to be com- 

 plicated structures containing derivatives from all of the three 

 blastodermic layers, applied the term embryomata, and believed 

 them peculiar to the ovary, developing from the growth of an 

 unimpregnated ovum. 



It was shown later that embryomata of the ovary differ in 

 no essential manner from embryomata occurring elsewhere in 

 the body, thus doing away with the earlier idea of Wilms of 

 ovum origin. 



A few references from a large literature are cited to illustrate 

 the more frequent situations in which these growths occur. 



Weigert(2) studied a 3.5-centimeter teratoma of the pituitary 

 body occurring in a boy of 14 years. The growth contained 

 epidermis, hair follicles, hair, sebaceous glands, fat, cartilage, 

 and smooth muscle. 



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