Ovarian tumors in children are not frequently seen. They comprise approximately 1% of all tumors found in children (Holt and McIntosh1). Although there are many elaborate classifications of ovarian tumors in adults, the principal ovarian tumors in children reported in the literature, in order of frequency, are ovarian cysts, teratomas, granulosa cell tumors, dysgerminomas, fibromas, embryonal carcinomas, and sarcomas. The latter were more frequently reported in the older literature, but were not all substantiated.
The first report of ovarian tumors in children was made by Wiel2 in 1905, when he reviewed 60 case reports from the literature. This was increased to 86 by Downes3 in 1921 and to 121 by Loeb and Levy4 11 years later. In 1937 Witzberger and Agerty5 reviewed the world literature and found 186 cases of ovarian tumors in children up to and including 10 years of age. A review of