"Floating ball sign" in the diagnostic imaging of mature ovarian teratomas in children.

The "floating ball sign" (FBS) is a rarely described visual phenomenon found in mature ovarian teratoma imaging. It is characterized by the presence of movable, spherical areas within the cystic component of a tumor. Such visualization is possible both in cross-sectional imaging and ultrasonography. To evaluate the incidence of FBS in the pediatric population with regard to patients' age and tumor size. This is a retrospective study of pediatric patients operated on in a tertiary pediatric surgical center between January 2009 and December 2022 due to mature ovarian teratoma; the medical records were reviewed for the age at diagnosis, recurrences, tumor size, and their characteristics in preoperative imaging. Eighty-three patients (mean age 14, range 0-17) out of 91 met the inclusion criteria for the analysis. Eighty-seven operations on 90 ovaries were performed. Preoperatively 38 patients underwent CT, 13 MRI, and 39 received only the ultrasound examination. The FBS was identified in preoperative imaging diagnostics in 3 (3.3%) girls (14, 16 and 17 years of age). The average largest tumor dimension and volume were 142 mm and 1268 cc in the FBS group, and 73 mm and 252 cc in the remaining group, respectively. FBS tumors usually reach large sizes. Although the sign is rare in children, there are no scientific reports of its occurrence in the first life decade. Color flow mapping and cross-sectional imaging play a pertinent role in distinguishing this uncommon pattern from a malignant mass and enable the selection of an appropriate surgical approach.

What Should Be the Topics of a Prospective Study on Ovarian Masses in Children?-Results of a Multicenter Retrospective Study and a Scoping Literature Review.

PURPOSE: to determine management problems of ovarian masses in girls in order to form a baseline for prospective randomized studies of the established topics and quality improvement of our management. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a national analysis of clinical aspects of ovarian masses in girls operated on in Poland, analyzed retrospectively medical files of all consecutive patients aged 0-18 who underwent surgeries for ovarian lesions between 2012 and 2017 at 17 pediatric surgical departments and complemented the analysis with a scoping review of a recent primary research related to ovarian masses in children. RESULTS: The study group comprised 595 patients. Forty-four (7.39%) girls were diagnosed with malignant tumors. The overall preservation rate was 64.54%. The analysis revealed that positive tumor markers (OR = 10.3), lesions larger than 6 cm (OR = 4.17) and solid mass on ultrasound examination (OR = 5.34) are interdependent variables differentiating malignant tumors from non-malignant lesions (X42 = 79.1; p = 0.00000). Our scoping review revealed 10 major branches of research within the topic of ovarian masses in pediatric population. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed an overview of the field with the emphasis on the local environment. Our next step is a multi-institutional prospective study of a quality improvement project implementation based on the obtained knowledge.