The sonographic appearance of the hemorrhagic ovarian cyst in adolescents.

Pelvic sonography was performed on ten teenaged girls who were proven by surgery to have hemorrhagic ovarian cysts. Pathologically, four were follicular ovarian cysts, while three were corpus luteal cysts, and the exact nature of three was undetermined. At sonography, these masses had variable appearances, ranging from anechoic to moderately echoic with septa and thick walls. All these features are nonspecific and can be encountered in other adnexal masses. The changing sonographic appearance of the hemorrhagic ovarian cyst due to clot lysis is helpful in establishing the diagnosis, and was demonstrated in two cases. These ten cases are discussed, the varied sonographic appearances are described and a review of pertinent literature is included.