Abstract :
Introduction: Diseases of the ovary are diversely arising from the different parenchymal tissue components. This span between reactive functional cysts to more debilitating ovarian carcinoma. Ovarian carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer and one of the leading cause of cancer death among female. This study aims to determine the epidemiological and histopathological patterns of ovarian masses in our setting.
Materials and Methods: The study material was all the ovarian tissues biopsy specimen submitted to the Department of Histopathology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto over five years. These were fixed in 10% formal saline embedded in paraffin wax, tissue blocks formed and were sections and stained with hematoxylin and eosin on the glass slides. Request cards and case folders were used to extract clinical information. These were reviewed, analysed and presented as frequency distribution figures.
Results: There were 112 ovarian biopsies during the study period. Their ages ranged between 13 and 67 years and peaked in the fourth decade of life. Fifty per cent of all the cases were seen between the ages of 21 and 40 years. Benign neoplastic diseases formed 50% of the ovarian masses and matured cystic teratoma was the most common. Others were reactive and functional ovarian cysts (24.1%), malignant neoplastic conditions (14.3%) and inflammatory / infectious diseases (11.6%). Overall mature cystic teratoma constitutes 27% of the entire ovarian masses.
Conclusions: Matured cystic teratoma was the most common disease of the ovary in our setting, afflicting young female, while malignant tumours dominated by serous cystadenocarcinoma affect the older age group. The fourth decade of life was the most common age of affectation. We advocate for proper histopathologic evaluation of all ovarian masses to arrive at a definitive diagnosis to offer an appropriate treatment modality.
Keyword :
Pathology, Ovary, Mature cystic Teratoma, Serous cystadenocarcinoma.