CLINICAL REPORTS   

Chirurgia 1999 October;12(5):353-6

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Mature cystic teratoma of the ovary. A clinicopathologic and therapeutic analysis

Tani F., Coratti A., Andolfi E., Belcastro M., Ludovisi G., Brogi M., Lucenti A.

The most typical epidemiological and anatomopathological aspects of the mature cystic ovarian teratoma (MCT) and the risk factors involved in this pathology are described and describe the clinical case of a young woman with a left ovarian MCT already operated in pediatric age for a similar disease in the controlateral annexus is presented. Subsequently the clinical aspects of the ovarian MCT are discussed, with specific reference to its potential abdominal, neoplastic and endocrine complications, along with the diagnostic aspects, attempting to define the most adequate technical approach for a correct pathological definition of the disease. The therapeutic patterns to use in attacking the ovarian MCT are discussed, considering surgery as the main approach to therapy and as the only true solution of the disease; moreover, despite what maintained in the past, the most conservative feasible surgical approach is indicated, preferring as an orientative method a simple cystectomy compared to annexectomy, and leaving the most extensive interventions only for specific cases. Some specific guidelines are then given for the treatment of ovarianMCT in specific cases, such as acute abdomen secondary to MCT, childbearing period and post-partum period, as well as the intraoperative approach to the contralateral ovary.