title: [Genital hemorrhage in girls before puberty. Apropos of 33 cases].
abstract: Vaginal bleeding in young girls without other signs of precocious sexual development is rare. We report a series of 33 cases observed during a 21 year period in the departments of pediatrics of the University of Lyon. Among the various etiologies, vaginal foreign bodies (10 cases, 30%) and vaginitis (10 cases, 30%) were the most frequent. There were 3 cases of benign vulvar tumors (9%) and 3 cases of malignant vaginal tumors (9%). In 3 cases the vaginal bleeding remained apparently idiopathic leading to the diagnosis of premature menarche. A retrospective evaluation of each case showed that history, physical examination and colposcopy would have rapidly established the correct diagnosis in 80 to 85% of cases; it is therefore concluded that laboratory and complex gynecologic investigations should be considered only after negative findings from these simple clinical tools in the evaluation of vaginal bleeding in prepubertal girls.
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000150:complications; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008796:Metrorrhagia / Q000209:etiology; D014592:Uterine Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D014625:Vaginal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D014846:Vulvar Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D014848:Vulvovaginitis / Q000150:complications
vernacular_title: Les hémorragies génitales de la fille avant la puberté. A propos de trente-trois observations.