Mesonephric adenocarcinoma is a rare type of cervical cancer that derives from mesonephric remnants in the uterine cervix. To the best of our knowledge, this is the 34th case of mesonephric adenocarcinoma in adult women documented in the literature. We present an asymptomatic 64-year-old postmenopausal woman presenting with a suspicious-looking cervix as an incidental finding and diagnosed with a stage IB mesonephric adenocarcinoma of the cervix. This case was managed with radical hysterectomy, bilateral salpingoophorectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy. The rarity of such cases imposes challenges on the management in terms of diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic options.

The authors present a case of spontaneous adrenal haemorrhage, in a 28-year-old woman at 36 weeks of a twin pregnancy. Initial symptom was sudden onset chest pain which soon migrated to abdomen, accompanied by hypovolaemic shock and fetal bradycardia. Subsequent caesarean section for suspected placental abruption and resuscitation with nine units of blood, 10 of cryoprecipitate, four of fresh frozen plasma and two of platelets, in order to treat anaemia of Hgb of 3.6 g/dl and disseminated intravascular coagulation, failed to stabilise the woman. A CT scan of abdomen and pelvis then revealed a 15×17×17 cm retroperitoneal haematoma, secondary to right adrenal haemorrhage. Management was with laparotomy drainage and packing of the retroperitoneal haematoma along with the use of activated factor VII. Adrenal haemorrhage in pregnancy is an extremely rare, acute, life-threatening condition, presenting with non-specific symptoms.

George Papanikolaou is famously quoted as saying “the first observation of cancer cells in the smear of the uterine cervix gave me one of the greatest thrills I ever experienced during my scientific career”