OVARIAN FIBROMA WITH ASCITES AND HYDROTHORAX (MEIGS'S SYNDROME)

Abstract

Fibroma of the ovary, an uncommon tumor, may rarely be associated with hydrothorax as well as with ascites. The knowledge that this association of pleural effusion with a benign pelvic tumor exists is extremely important from the standpoint both of prognosis and of treatment, since most pelvic tumors causing pleural effusion are malignant and the effusion is the result of pleural or pulmonary metastasis. In the presence of massive pleural effusion it may at times be impossible, even after partial aspiration, to exclude the presence of pulmonary metastasis by x-ray examination. We feel, then, that in these instances the occurrence of hydrothorax with a pelvic tumor justifies abdominal exploration and promises substantial hope of recovery in a considerable group in which the prognosis was previously regarded as hopeless. Recently Meigs and Cass¹reported a series of seven cases presenting the syndrome of fluid in the chest in association with