Ovarian tumors in children and adolescents: A 10-year review.

ABSTRACT

This retrospective study reports on 99 young patients (under 20 years) with ovarian tumors treated at Siriraj Hospital over a ten-year period from 1988-1997. The incidence was 5.9% of all ovarian tumors (1,665 cases). Ninety-five patients (96%) were nulliparity. The common presenting symptom was either abdominal mass (42.4%) or abdominal pain (33.3%). More than half of the patients (58.6%) had tumors between 6 and 15 cm in greatest diameter and the bilaterality rate was 12.1%. Fifteen patients (15.2%) had complication of the tumors, 14 of which were torsion. No statistic significant difference in presenting symptom, tumor size, laterality, and complication between benign and malignant tumors was found. Of the total, 77 (77.8%) patients were benign, 18 (18.2%) were malignant and four (4%) were borderline tumors. The frequency of ovarian malignancy correlated inversely with age of the patient (p=0.006). Germ cell, common epithelium, and stromal cell tumors were found in 60.6%, 37.4%, and 2% of patients, respectively. Surgical treatment was conservative in 90.9% and radical in 9.1% of the patients.