Original research article on cystic ovarian lesions diagnosed as teratomas - a 2 year study in a tertiary care hospital

Background: The incidence of dermoid cyst accounts for approximately 20% of all ovarian tumours. They occur more commonly in reproductive age group of women and are usually unilateral. This study is conducted to evaluate the clinical and pathologic presentation of mature cystic teratomas. Dermoid cyst is the most common type of ovarian germ cell tumor. Methods: A 2yr retrospective and prospective study is done at tertiary care centre hospital of which around 180 patients with ovarian cysts were included of which 29 cases are diagnosed as teratomas are included. . Hysterectomy specimens along with adnexa were received for histopathological examination, and tissues were fixed in 10% formalin for processing.  Sections were processed routinely with paraffin embedding and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Results: Cystic teratomas constituted 16.1% of all ovarian cystic lesions diagnosed and treated at our institution during the study period. The median of age was 34years. Abdominal or pelvic pain was the most frequent symptom for presentation in 62%of the cases. The rate of bilateral cystic teratomas of the ovary was 7%. The incidence of torsion was 3.3%, and was the highest in all complications. Histopathological evaluation has detected 96.6 % cases of mature teratomas, and 3.4% cases of immature teratomas. Conclusions: Mature cystic teratoma is the most common germ cell tumor and accounts for about 33% of all ovarian neoplasm.