Sister Mary Joseph nodule: it does not bode well

Abstract

Sister Mary Joseph, the superintendent nurse and surgical assistant of Dr. William Mayo at St Mary’s Hospital (presently Mayo Clinic), was the first to note the association of umbilical nodules with intra-abdominal malignancy. Dr. Hamilton Bailey, a British surgeon, in his classic book Physical Signs in Clinical Surgery named the lesion for Sister Mary Joseph; the palpable bulging usually firm nodule distorting and invading into the umbilicus as a manifestation of metastatic malignancy from the abdomen or the pelvis.