[Ovary teratoma. Report of 91 cases]

To analyse the clinical and anatomic aspects of cystic teratomas of the ovary, caracteristics of patients having cystic teratomas and the management trends at our institution.

Retrospective study of 91 cases of cystic teratomas of the ovary diagnosed and treated at Farhat -Hached Hospital (Sousse) between 1 january 1995 and 30 june 2003.

Cystic teratomas constituted 12.13% of all ovarian tumors diagnosed and treated at our institution during the study period. The median of age was 33.35 ans. Abdominal or pelvic pain was the most frequent symptom for presentation in 67% of the cases. In addition; incidental finding was noted in 25.3% of the cases and swelling in 23% of the cases. The mean tumor diameter was 10 cm. The rate of bilateral cystic teratomas of the ovary was 14.3%. 19.8% of cystic teratomas has occurred in pregnancy. The operative video-laparoscopy was employed in 9 cases, laparotomy was employed in82 cases. Histopathological evaluation has detected 96.7% cases of mature teratomas, and 3.3% cases of immature teratomas.

Cystic tertomas are the most common ovarian neoplasms, that occurs most commonly during the reproductive years. The operative laparoscopy is the most common modality of treatment of mature cystic teratomas. Immature teratomas must be treated by laparotomy associated if necessary to chimiothrapiy.