[Genital hemorrhage in girls before puberty. Apropos of 33 cases]

Vaginal bleeding in young girls without other signs of precocious sexual development is rare. We report a series of 33 cases observed during a 21 year period in the departments of pediatrics of the University of Lyon. Among the various etiologies, vaginal foreign bodies (10 cases, 30%) and vaginitis (10 cases, 30%) were the most frequent. There were 3 cases of benign vulvar tumors (9%) and 3 cases of malignant vaginal tumors (9%). In 3 cases the vaginal bleeding remained apparently idiopathic leading to the diagnosis of premature menarche. A retrospective evaluation of each case showed that history, physical examination and colposcopy would have rapidly established the correct diagnosis in 80 to 85% of cases; it is therefore concluded that laboratory and complex gynecologic investigations should be considered only after negative findings from these simple clinical tools in the evaluation of vaginal bleeding in prepubertal girls.