[Abdominal forms of Castleman's disease]

Two cases of Castleman's disease (angiofollicular lymphoid hyperplasia) with abdominal localisation are reported. The first case was a mesenteric localisation with compressive symptoms in a sixty year-old patient; its histological type was hyalino-vascular; the evolution was favorable one year later following cobaltherapy; but ultimately pathological examination of a peripheral lymph node led to the discovery of a malignant nodular lymphoma of the follicular center cell type. The second case involved the retroperitoneal space with multiple lymph nodes and IgA dysglobulinemia in a 49 year-old patient; its evolution was favorable as judged six months after surgical resection. Twenty cases of mesenteric and thirty one of retroperitoneal involvement of Castleman's diseases have been previously reported. The nosology and pathogenesis of this disease remain unclear.