Licence: In copyright
Credit: Pregnancy, labour and child-bed with ovarian tumour / by R.G. McKerron. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![CHAEACTER AND SITE OF THE OVARIAN TUMOUR. The character and site of the ovarian tumour have so im- portant an influence, not only on the progress of pregnancy and labour, but on the convalescence in childbed, that a few observations on the subject may be desirable. Character of the Tumour,—All the usual kinds of ovarian disease have been found associated with pregnancy, but the relative frequency of the various forms differs in all published collections from that found in the non-pregnant condition. Of the cases in our series the character of the tumour may with reasonable certainty be determined in 862. Cystic tumours, as might l)e expected, are the most numerous, 594 being simple or multilocular cysts. A few of the latter are described as papillor matous. Of dermoid tumours there are 204, or nearly 1 in 4, a greater ])roportion than statistics in the non-pregnant would lead us to expect. This greater frequency in pregnancy is not difficult to explain. Dermoid tumours are for the most part small, giving rise to no or few symptoms until, from their situation in the pelvis during labour or from injuries which they may sustain in the abdomen during its progress, they make their presence felt. Save for their association with pregnancy they would probably escape observation. Another reason assigned by Herman' is that dermoids remain long in the pelvis, and that thus pregnancy is more likely to occur than in the case of a tumour early lifted up into the abdomen. Whatever the ' Herman, Diseases of Women, p. 763.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21964476_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
