title: Ovarian tumours in children : a review of 18 cases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To review the experience of Children's Hospital of Rabat in managing ovarian tumours in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  There were 18 patients between 2 and 15 years of age who presented with an ovarian tumour at Children's Hospital of Rabat between January 2000 and December 2008. Data collected from the hospital medical records included age at diagnosis, patient's history, presenting complaints, radiological examination, tumour markers, management, operative procedure, histopathological examination and outcome of the patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most common presenting complaint was abdominal pain in 10 (55%) patient. 77% of ovarian tumours were germ cell tumours; 71% of these were teratomas which were benign in 66% of cases. Unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was the most common surgical procedure performed in 15 patients (83%) through laparotomy. Laparoscopic ovarian cystectomy was carried out in 2 (11%) patients with benign cystic teratoma. Of the 7 (39%) patients with malignant tumours, three received postoperative chemotherapy. Outcome was good in most cases. There were no cases of resistance to treatment, or death.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Early diagnosis of ovarian tumours in children and adolescents is important. Since most of these tumours are benign, surgical treatment should be conservative to minimise the risk of subsequent infertility, while the treatment of malignant tumours should include complete staging, resection of the tumour, postoperative chemotherapy when indicated, to give the patient a chance for future childbearing.
authors.affiliation: Service of Visceral Pediatric Surgery "A", Children's Hospital of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco.
authors.forename: Abdelouhab
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ammor
authors.forename: Mounir
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kisra
authors.forename: Rachid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oulahyane
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kababri
authors.forename: Najat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Maalmi
authors.forename: Aouatef
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cherkaoui
authors.forename: Amine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouhafs
authors.forename: Noureddine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaddouri
authors.forename: Mbarek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdelhak
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khattab
authors.forename: Zaitounia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Alhamany
authors.forename: Mohamed Najib
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Benhmamouch
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D007813:Laparotomy / Q000379:methods; D009018:Morocco / Q000453:epidemiology; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D010052:Ovariectomy / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome