LARGE OVARIAN CYST IN A NEWBORN INFANT

An abdominal mass in the neonatal period is infrequent. When such a mass is recognized, either because it produces symptoms by virtue of encroachment on adjacent organs or other structures or because of its large size it becomes palpable, surgical intervention is necessary. Because abdominal tumors in infants often are malignant, early diagnosis is of paramount importance. Newhauser 1 recently stated, in discussing the survival rate in cases of embryoma of the kidney, the commonest neoplasm of infancy, that cure following surgical removal decreases in frequency when diagnosis is delayed until after the first year of life. We wish to report a large ovarian cyst as a rare cause of abdominal tumor in the newborn period. An abdominal mass was discovered in an infant at 4 days of age, and an exploratory operation was performed when the infant was 32 days old. A search of the literature leads us to