STATION 6 ANSWERS

1.    What is the diagnosis?

Mature benign teratoma of the ovary.

2.    What are the features?

This shows the cut section of a ovary. The ovary is covered by a glistening serosa and is lined by skin with skin appendages such as hair inside. The cystic space is filled with a thick sebaceous material containing teeth, bone and cartilage.

3.    Give 2 diagnoses of a right pelvic mass.

a.    Ovarian cyst.

b.    Pregnancy.

4.    What is the pathogenesis of this condition?

It is a germ cell tumor arising from totipotential germ cells capable of differentiating into the three germ cell layers. 

5.    Give 2 reasons for its removal.

a.    They may undergo torsion.

b.    They may rupture spontaneously: either suddenly causing an acute abdomen and a chemical peritonitis or slowly causing chronic granulomatous peritonitis.

c.    About 1% undergo malignant transformation with poor prognosis.

Copyright � Joseph Ong 2003