Paraovarian cysts of neoplastic origin are underreported

Introduction: We suspected that paraovarian cysts of neoplastic origin may be underreported. This study was designed to evaluate our data on the pathologic characteristics of cystic lesions located in the paraovarian area and compare them with previous studies that claimed the vast majority of these lesions were simple paraovarian cysts and only few (1.69% to 5%) were neoplastic ones. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of the clinical, surgical, ultrasonographic, and pathologic features of 59 women operated on for cystic paraovarian lesions at our institution from January 2002 to April 2006. Results: Forty-four women (74.6%) had simple paraovarian cysts, and 15 (25.4%) had benign neoplastic paraovarian cysts (7 cystadenomas and 8 cystadenofibromas). There were no cases of malignant tumor. There was no difference in the clinical presentation of the women with either type of cyst. Preoperative ultrasound examinations (n=50) demonstrated more complex cysts with internal papillary projections in the group with neoplastic paraovarian cysts (41.7% compared with 7.9%, P=0.01). The macroscopic pathologic examinations revealed a significantly increased percentage of gross papillary excrescences in the group of neoplastic paraovarian cysts (10/15, 66.7%) compared with the group with simple paraovarian cysts (3/44, 6.8%, P<0.01). Other pathologic features did not differ between the 2 study groups. Discussion: Our analysis revealed a higher percentage of paraovarian cysts of neoplastic origin (∼25%) than the figures quoted in most previous reports. Conclusion: Intraoperative inspection for diagnosing the cyst type and more frequent use of endobag devices to avoid spillage of cystic fluid are recommended.