Diagnosis of Ovarian Follicular Cysts from Birth to Puberty: A Report of Twenty Cases

ABSTRACT. Twenty girls aged 1 day to 17 years have been studied for ovarian follicular cysts. Clinical features leading to the discovery of the follicular cyst were different in prepubertal girls and in girls whose cyst was discovered during puberty. Before seven years of age, four girls presented a precocious pseudopuberty where breast development was in contrast with very low pituitary gonadotropin levels; two girls in this age group were diagnosed after complaining about abdominal pain. In two cases the diagnosis was prenatal during routine ultrasonography of the mother. After ten years of age, abnormal menses (5 cases) or acute abdominal pain (5 cases) were the main clinical features. In only one case the cyst presented as an abdominal mass. Follow‐up of the 20 patients showed: spontaneous disappearance of the cyst within 3 to 32 weeks in 9 cases; ovariectomy in 8 cases, due to a torsion of a large cyst (over 55 mm) in 7 children and because of the fear of a possible tumor in one; limited resection of the cyst in 4 cases. By systematic ultrasonography, discovery of an ovarian cyst as defined by a non‐echogenic area over 20 mm may occur relatively often in young girls. Spontaneous disappearance is frequent when the cyst is small (under 55 mm). Torsion of large cysts remains the major complication.