[Epithelial inclusion cyst formation after buried vaginal mucosa. Diagnosis and management]

Surgical treatment in which a vaginal mucosa island is buried leads to a risk of epithelial inclusion cyst formation. The aim of this study is to describe this complication, assess incidence, precise facilitating factors and discuss treatment.

This study concerned 84 patients operated on between January 1996 and December 1998. They were treated with modified vaginal wall sling procedure. Fifty women were post-menopausal and 22 had estrogenotherapy. All patients had post-operative surveillance. The mean post-operative follow-up was 19 months (range: 1-68 months). Epithelial inclusion cyst formation diagnosis reposed exclusively on clinical assessment.Results. - Seven out of the 84 patients (8.3%) were diagnosed with epithelial inclusion cyst formation within 19 months of their operation (range: 3-34 months). Out of the seven patients, four were post-menopausal and three had received estrogenotherapy for many years. In six cases, epithelial inclusion cyst was symptomatically revealed by perineal pain or dysuria. These cases were successfully treated by cyst marsupialisation without recurrent incontinence.

The results of this short study show that epithelial inclusion cyst formation is a specific complication of surgical procedures burying a full thickness of vaginal mucosa and that estrogen impregnation seems to be the main facilitating factor. Successful treatment of symptomatic cases of epithelial inclusion cyst can be achieved by marsupialisation.