ENDOMETRIOMA OCCURRING IN A POSTCESAREAN LAPAROTOMY SCAR

The occurrence of endometriomas in laparotomy scars, especially those following cesarean section, is sufficiently rare to warrant reporting. There have been a number of good reviews of the literature by Nicholson,1Heaney,2Lemon and Mahle,3Vassmer,4Pratt,5and more recently Hosoi and Meeker,6which indicate that there are less than a hundred such reports available. Hosoi and Meeker,6who have collected eighty-seven cases of endometriomas occurring in laparotomy scars, report only twenty-one in which the pregnant uterus had been opened. It is interesting that cesarean section plays such a relatively small antecedent rôle in the formation of these tumors. Possibly the decidua is not adapted for independent growth immediately after parturition, when all pelvic structures are undergoing involution. REPORT OF CASEHistory. —A white woman, aged 31, a secundigravida, reentered the obstetric and gynecologic service of the University Hospital, March 18, 1930, complaining