Giant Ovarian Cyst Presenting as an Intra-Abdominal Mass

Abstract

Giant ovarian cysts are tumours of the ovary presenting with diameters greater than 10 cm. They have become rare in recent days as they are diagnosed and managed early due to the modern imaging modalities. An 18-year-old female patient was admitted with abdominal distension and was detected to have a serous cystadenoma measuring 33 cm arising from the right ovary, which is presented in this report. Our aim is to show how a huge cystic ovarian mass can mislead the diagnosis of ascites or mesenteric/omental cysts in an adolescent woman. Cystic abdominopelvic tumours are common and are diagnosed early due to the availability of modern imaging modalities. The differential diagnosis is extensive and includes paraovarian cyst, peritoneal/mesenteric cyst, appendiceal mucocele, cystic adenomyosis etc.1 Ovarian cysts rarely reach a large size and are generally asymptomatic at early stages and causing symptoms only after reaching enormous dimensions. The symptoms include progressive abdominal distension, nonspecific abdominal pain, constipation, early satiety, vomiting and frequent micturition. Only a few cases of giant ovarian cysts have been sporadically reported in the literature.2,3,4 Serous tumours are the most common cystic neoplasms of the ovary, 60 % of which are benign. Surgical management is the preferred treatment. We present a case of a giant ovarian cyst (GOC) in an 18-year-old female that turned out to be a benign serous cystadenoma of the ovary on histopathological examination. Very few cases of GOCs masquerading as ascites or mesenteric cysts have been reported.5 This case is reported to increase the suspicion index of serous cystadenoma in the case of giant intra-abdominal cysts in young women.