Histomorphometric Pattern of Ovarian Cyst in a Sub-Urban Tertiary Health Institution in Nigeria

Abstract

In clinical settings, diagnostic ultimate goals are to identify a cyst and determine the risk of malignancy. The aim of this study was to assess the morphological and morphometric pattern of ovarian cysts among women attending Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Irrua. The histomorphometric pattern of ovarian cysts among one hundred and eighty-one (181) women attending the Gynecology Clinic at ISTH was evaluated over a period of 4 years using structured questionnaires and clinical reports from ultrasound scans and Pathology slides from the Departments of Radiology and Anatomic Pathology respectively. Results from the clinical studies revealed that the occurrence of ovarian cysts is significant (p < 0.05) in premenopausal women in the sampled population with the highest prevalence being follicular cysts (35.9 %). Other types of cysts found in the respondent populations were cystadenomas (25.4%), corpus luteal cysts (17.7%), endometriotic cysts (12.2%) and dermoid cysts (8.8%). However, pathologic cysts were found to be more significantly prevalent (p < 0.05) in women within the postmenopausal age group with highest occurrence being cystadenomas (54.92%) of all pathologic cysts in the respondent population. The dimension of the cysts ranged from 2cm to 20cm with 53.7% being greater than 8 cm in diameter. In conclusion, the highest incidence of ovarian cysts among women attending Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua is the follicular cyst while the least is the dermoid cyst. Also, the majority of patients with ovarian cysts who present at the Gynecology clinic have ovarian cysts which are greater than 8 cm in diameter.