A review of teratomas in Ibadan

Teratomas accounted for 3.4 cases per 1,000 surgical biopsies received in the Pathology Department of UCH Ibadan, between 1960 and 1985. The commonest site of teratomas was in the ovaries which accounted for 83.2% of the cases, followed by the sacrococcygeal region which accounted for a further 6.3%. Other sites of occurrence included the neck, testes, mediastinum, abdominal cavity and buccal cavity in descending order of frequency. Rare sites of occurrence were extracranial, intracranial, uterine cervix and intraocular regions. There was a female to male ratio of 18 to 1 and the average age of the patients was 25.8 years. Sixty per cent of ovarian and mediastinal teratomas contained hair and sebaceous material permitting their gross identification. Eighty-eight per cent of the teratomas reviewed histologically were classified as mature, a further 8% were immature, and 4% were malignant.