[Maturation of immature teratomas of the ovary. Apropos of a case and review of the literature].

We report a case history of a 20 year old woman, primiparous, who had an immature teratoma of the ovary that developed. In June 1982 the diagnosis of an ovarian tumour of the right ovary was made after she had complained of pain in her pelvis, of metrorrhagia and ascites had been discovered. At that time we removed her right tube and ovary. There were no other lesions in the abdomen. The anatomopathological examination of the specimen revealed an immature grade II teratoma. She received six cycles of chemotherapy which consisted of a combination of Bleomycin, Velbe and Cysplatin between July and December. A second-look laparotomy was carried out in February 1983. This showed that she had multiple secondary diffuse peritoneal lesions. Because of this total hysterectomy with the removal of the other tube and ovary and omentectomy were carried out. Histological examination showed lesions of a mature teratoma-grade 0. In October 1986 ultrasound showed two parenchymatous lesions in the liver. These were removed and the anatomopathological study showed that these were mature teratomata, identical to those that had been found at the second-look laparotomy. The patient is now considered to be cured after being free from trouble for the last 58 months. Looking through the international publications on these conditions has turned up 40 similar cases. The phenomenon of maturation seems to be of a good prognosis as compared with those where the teratomas stayed immature.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)