Ormond's disease or aortic aneurysm? Case reports.

This paper presents three case reports as a basis for discussing the differential diagnosis of retroperitoneal processes and for describing the possibilities and limitations of diagnostic imaging procedures. A definitive differentiation is not possible by CT and MRI alone, but always requires histologic confirmation. Nevertheless, imaging procedures are indispensable for assessing the extent of a lesion and for follow-up. On the basis of the cases presented here and reports in the literature, it can be hypothesized that benign retroperitoneal fibrosis is caused by a chronic inflammatory or autoimmune response of the vessels since the vast majority of cases are associated with pronounced wall abnormalities of the abdominal aorta.