Giant bilateral ovarian cysts in an adolescent masked by obesity and mimicking ascites: a case report.

Ovarian cysts are a common pathology after the 4th decade of life. We can find either smaller functional, non-neoplastic ones (belonging to the follicular and luteinic varieties) or larger tumoral cysts, which, however, are usually benign. These may be of the serous or mucinous type and can sometimes reach really large sizes. Reports of giant ovarian manifestations were more frequent a few decades ago. Prior to the advent of modern radiological, ultrasonographic, tomographic and magnetic resonance imaging techniques, diagnosis was often difficult. Nevertheless, even today, in some cases (as a result of pronounced obesity, for example, associated perhaps with diagnostic negligence), cases of giant ovarian cysts may still be encountered. We report the case of a (previously obese) 19-year-old female, admitted to our hospital for presumed ascites, identified and ultrasonographically misdiagnosed by her gynaecologist. The patient was, in fact, suffering from giant serous cystoadenomas in both ovaries.