Conservative surgery of the ovary

113 patients aged between 16 and 41 underwent conservative surgery of the ovary between 1965 and 1984 in the First Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Catania University Medical School, Catania, Italy. The frequency of conservative surgery of the ovary was 0.55% of total gynecological admissions. Indications for surgery were sterility due to postinflammatory adherence in 14.15% (16 cases), in 34.51% (39 cases) ovarian polycystosis after failure of medical therapy with ovulation inducers, in 46.92% (53 cases) pelvic tumor, and in 4.42% (5 cases) hemorrhage of the corpus luteum (4 cases) or ovarian pregnancy (1 case). In 53 cases of enucleation of ovarian tumor the most frequent pathology was serous cyst (41.50%; 22 cases), followed by dermoid cysts (33.96%; 18 cases), cyst caused by endometriosis (18.86%; 10 cases). Luteinic cysts were more rare (3.77%; 2 cases), and in only 1 case was there ovarian cystadenoma (1.88%). Postoperative course was febrile in 7.96% (9 cases) of patients. There were no cases of mortality.