Ovarian histology in pelvic inflammatory disease

The decision to perform oophorectomy when pelvic surgery is complicated by inflammatory disease requires some knowledge of the expected ovarian his to pathology. To aid in this evaluation, the hospital records and histology of the surgical specimens of 40 patients who underwent oophorectomy with the pathologic diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) were reviewed. Of 70 ovaries removed from these patients, 28 were histologically normal and free of inflammatory involvement. Women who described a history of irregular menses or whose gynecologic history and gross surgical pathology indicated chronic PID had a higher incidence of ovarian pathology than women with normal menstruation or only acute PID. These features may assist in planning the extent of pelvic surgery in selected patients.