Ovarian masses in children and adolescents: Analysis on 146 patients

Ovarian masses in pediatric population are the most common genital neoplasms, and these masses are often benign. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the pediatric ovarian masses operated in our hospital.

The records of patients, under the age of 18 who were operated in our hospital due to ovarian mass between 2012 and 2018 were reviewed retrospectively. Clinical findings, operational procedures, histopathologies, tumor markers and radiological images were evaluated.

During the study, 146 patients (5 patients were bilateral) were evaluated. The average age of the study patients was 14.01 ± 4.02 years. 107 of the study patients were benign, 37 were malignant and 2 were borderline. The most common symptom in benign masses was tenderness in lower abdominal (75.7 %). 124 of the patients (86.1 %) were in post-menarche period. 34 of the patients had ovarian torsion. Open surgery was conducted on 79.5 % (116/146) of the patients, and laparoscopic surgery was conducted on 20.5 % (30/146). The rate of oophorectomy was 24.6 % (36/146) throughout the operations. The most frequently conducted surgical procedure was cyst excision in benign masses and oophorectomy in malignant masses. In neoplastic masses, the ratio of pelvic mass palpation; and in non-neoplastic masses, lower abdominal tenderness was more apparent. The rate of ovarian torsion was 23.6 % (25/107) in benign masses and 24.3 % (9/37) in malignant masses.

Pediatric and adolescent ovarian masses are mostly benign and majority of these occur at post-menarche period. The most common symptom was pelvic tenderness in benign masses, and palpable pelvic masses in malignant masses. For future fertility and low incidence of malignancy in these patients, ovarian preserving surgery should be considered for the first operation.