Ruptured ovarian cyst in the newborn

The newborn child presents few disease entities that require emergency surgical intervention during the first hours of life. When such a situation does occur, however, the child is rarely in a center devoted to surgery of the newborn, nor is there time to move him to one. Thus, the diagnosis and treatment usually rests with pediatricians and surgeons who may deal only occasionally with such problems. One may be justified therefore in recording a single case in which peritoneal aspiration helped expedite a decision for surgery. The child, operated upon at the age of 3 hours, is as far as we know, the youngest successfully treated for intraperitoneal hemorrhage and for excision of an ovarian cyst. The necessity for reoperation on this child at the age of 4 1 2 months also offered a unique opportunity to observe the changes the remaining ovary had undergone.