Ovarian tumors associated with pregnancy termination patients.

One hundred adnexal masses were discovered at the time of pregnancy termination among a total of 55,278 pregnancy terminations performed at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center between 1970 and 1982. Seven patients were found to be not pregnant, and 93 masses were associated with pregnancy, for an incidence of one adnexal mass for every 594 (0.17%) terminations. Benign cystic teratoma was the most common lesion found (46;50%). There were two (2.2%) ovarian malignancies, 15 masses were bilateral, 11 masses were associated with pain, and torsion of the adnexa had occurred in seven cases. The preoperative diagnosis was made more commonly in the first trimester (86%) than in the second trimester (29%). Since many ovarian tumors are small, the true incidence is unknown. In a series of 998 abortion hysterectomies, 13 ovarian tumors were found, for an incidence of 1.3%.