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Functional ovarian lesions in children and adolescents: when to remove them
C Spinelli1, M Di Giacomo, M Cei
1Chair of Pediatric and Infantile Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Pisa, Via Roma 67, 56126 Pisa, Italy. c.spinelli@dc.med.unipi.it
Study Objective:
Functional ovarian lesions represent 45% of all pediatric adnexal abnormalities. Their surgical management, even if frequent, is not clear, especially in pediatric age.
Materials And Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed 22 pediatric patients surgically treated for functional ovarian lesions from 2000 to 2006. The following characteristics were analysed: age, size of the lesion, ultrasound (US) aspect and clinical presentation.
Results:
The average age was 16.1 years of age (range: 6 months-18 years). Of the 22 functional lesions, 12 (55%) were follicular cysts and 10 (45%) corpus luteum ones. The average size was 6.7 cm (range: 5.1-33 cm). US scan showed simple lesions in 10 cases (45%) and complex ones in 12 cases (55%). In 16 girls (72.8%) the presenting symptom was abdominal pain while 2 patients (9%) presented abdominal distention. In the other 4 patients (16.2%) the lesion was found accidentally during US examination.
Conclusion:
In pediatric subjects, functional ovarian cysts rarely required surgical intervention, though no complications or disorder recurrence were reported. To preserve ovarian function, conservative surgery has to be performed whenever feasible.
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