The second-look operation and surgical reexploration in ovarian tumor of low malignant potential

Patients at the University of Michigan Medical Center who were reoperated on for either operative staging, suspected disease, or a second-look procedure with the diagnosis of ovarian tumor of low malignant potential are reported. At the time of initial surgery, 29 patients were thought to have benign disease based on visual inspection of the ovarian mass, and seven patients had a frozen-section report of benign disease. Fifteen patients underwent restaging operation, and disease was found in seven patients. One patient remained as stage Ia, one patient was upstaged to stage Ib, and five patients were upstaged to either stages II or III. Thirteen patients underwent 22 operations for suspected disease. Malignancy was encountered in 19 of these 22 operations. A second-look operation was performed on 20 patients, and 17 of these were negative. All patient with original stages I or II disease had negative second-look operations, whereas three of the eight patients with stage III disease had positive second-look operations. Reexploration for staging in the ovarian tumor of low malignant potential will yield a reasonable number of positive results, whereas the second-look operation in early-stage disease has a very low yield.