1 The Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics, the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City.
The pathologic and clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of combined pelvic and retroperitoneal teratomas in infancy and childhood, based upon a study of 15 cases, are reviewed. One case of malignant combined pelvic and retroperitoneal teratoma with recovery for 4 4/12 years is presented; this is believed to be the first reported cure of this condition.
Combined pelvic and retroperitoneal teratomas were usually noted in female infants under the age of 1 year as large tumors in the pelvis and lower abdomen, with or without extension into the buttocks, often causing urinary or intestinal obstruction, readily diagnosed by rectal and abdominal examination, and revealing areas of calcification or ossification on roentgenologic examination.
In this group of 15, 4 of the teratomas had undergone malignant changes, and 4 had not been operated upon and were described at autopsy.
Successful treatment of combined pelvic and retroperitoneal teratomas was dependent upon early operation, careful operative technic through staged posterior and abdominal incisions, and adequate preoperative and postoperative management. The operative mortality was 20%.
A long term recovery rate of 15% in combined pelvic and retroperitoneal teratomas is in marked contrast to the reported cures with sacrococcygeal teratomas (68%) and retroperitoneal teratomas (42%).
Submitted on March 10, 1951