PARAOVARIAN AND PARATUBAL CYSTS - PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS USING TRANSABDOMINAL AND TRANSVAGINAL SONOGRAPHY

Objective: Paraovarian and paratubal cysts constitute about 10% of adn exal masses. Our purpose was to determine whether pathologically prove n examples of these lesions were correctly identified during preoperat ive transabdominal and transvaginal sonographic evaluations. Methods: Between 1990 and 1994, 15 women with 10 paraovarian cysts and 5 paratu bal cysts underwent preoperative sonography. The sonograms were perfor med using transabdominal and transvaginal probes. Mean interval before surgery was 22 days (range: 1-96 days). The sonographic interpretatio n at the time of the examination was correlated with the pathological findings. Results: In only 1 of 15 patients was a paraovarian or parat ubal cyst suggested before surgery. Paraovarian cysts were misdiagnose d as ovarian cysts. Because of the microscopic size of paratubal cysts in our series, none was diagnosed before surgery and these were usual ly an incidental finding in patients with ovarian masses. Conclusions: In our experience, paraovarian and paratubal cysts are difficult to d iagnose before surgery with the use of transabdominal and transvaginal sonography. We speculate that when there is close proximity of a para ovarian cyst to the ovary, an ovarian cystic mass cannot reliably be d ifferentiated from a paraovarian cyst. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc .