OVARIAN TUMOURS

Objectives: To correlate preoperative diagnosis with operative findingsregarding the type of ovarian tumours. Material and Methods: Setting: Gynaecology Unit-I, Nishtar Hospital, Multan.Sample size: 50 patients. Duration: One year from October 2001 to October 2002. Study Design: A prospectiveanalytical study. Results: Most common age group in benign tumours was 20-40 years. 50% of patients with malignanttumours were between 30-50 years. Out of 50 patients, 33.3% benign tumours were in unmarried girls. Only 5% ofcancers were in nullipara, while 80% of patients had two or more children. Most common presenting symptom wasabdominal/pelvic pain. Abdominal distension was present in 75% of malignant cases. Pressure effects, metastaticsymptoms and general symptoms were more frequently seen in malignant than benign cases. On ultrasonography,benign tumours were cystic in 83.3% of patients and 46% of these cystic tumours had either internal septations orechoes. 85% of malignant tumours were either solid or mixed. Ascites was detected in 60% of cancers. Abdominalascites was found in 75% of malignant cases intra-operatively. Irregular tumours and those with surface adhesionswere more likely to be malignant. The accuracy of preoperative diagnosis was found to be 84%, 5 cases initiallyconsidered malignant were later on found to be benign, while 3 cases diagnosed as benign preoperatively provedmalignant. Out of 50 cases, 46 (92%) cases were diagnosed as epithelial cell tumour on histopathology, while 4 cases(8%) were germ cell tumours. Conclusion: It was concluded that identification of risk factors, detailed enquiry of thepresenting symptoms and proper clinical examination of the tumour provide important information about the type ofovarian tumour. Ultrasonography is the best preoperative technique available to differentiate benign from malignantovarian tumours.