Paediatric ovarian lesions--the experience at Starship Children's Hospital, New Zealand.

AIM: To review the experience of paediatric ovarian masses at Starship Children's Hospital (Auckland, New Zealand). Primarily to assess the range of pathology, the presenting features, and the surgical management of these lesions.

METHODS: A search of the hospital surgical pathology database was carried out to identify patients less than 16 years in whom ovarian tissue was submitted for pathological analysis during the 12 year period from January 2000 to December 2011. A retrospective review of the medical records was carried out.

RESULTS: 244 ovarian masses in 219 patients were identified. 99 of these were neoplastic with 19 (7.8%) being malignant and an additional four (1.6%) borderline malignant lesions (borderline epithelial tumours). Mature cystic teratoma was the commonest neoplastic lesion (55.6%). Patients who presented with acute abdominal pain were more commonly found to have non-neoplastic lesions than neoplastic lesions (71.5% vs 46.9%, p<0.0001), and those that presented with a palpable mass were more commonly found to have a neoplastic lesion (24.0% vs 3.3%, p<0.0001). Laparoscopic surgery was performed in 41.6% of all patients. Ovary conserving surgery was performed in 56.6% of all patients, though only 32.3% of patients with neoplastic lesions.

CONCLUSION: This study provides important insight into the range of ovarian pathology encountered in a New Zealand paediatric population. Most of the ovarian lesions in paediatric age groups are benign. Ovarian sparing surgery is recommended. In cases of ovarian torsion, malignancy in this series and in the literature is less than 2%. This review highlights that paediatric surgical units have vast experience to deal with ovarian pathology in paediatric age groups.