•Sclerosing mesenteritis, and associated inflammatory conditions of the retroperitoneum, may mimic malignancy or infection.•Attempted surgical excision of sclerosing mesenteritis and other retroperitoneal conditions often lead to a morbid and unsuccessful surgery.•These conditions are immune-mediated, and respond remarkably well to immunosuppression.

Cicatricial fibromatoses usually occur in the anterior abdominal wall or in the extremities, but rarely in the scalp or the soft tissues of the neck. We report a case of desmoid fibromatosis that developed in a 15-year-old boy 8 months after surgery for cerebellar medulloblastoma.

The primary systemic vasculitides are well defined entities, but a number of diseases can imitate their clinical, laboratory, radiographic and histological features. The importance of awareness and recognition of these conditions lies in the initiation of correct therapy for the specific disease process and in the avoidance of unnecessary and potentially harmful immunosuppression. In this revie...

Mitochondrial diseases are inherited disorders of oxidative phosphorylation that present with a multitude of clinical features in different combinations and with various inheritance patterns. To complicate the issue further, the clinical features of mitochondrial disorders overlap with common neurological and non-neurological diseases. This presents a diagnostic challenge: when is a rare mitoch...