DERMOID CYSTS OF THE OVARY. PILOUS CYSTS.
Closed cutaneous sacs, with hair and sebum. Causes: enclosure of dermoid tissue in embryo: aborted ovum: virgin gestation. Symptoms. Treatment: Castration.
These are much less common than are simple cysts. They are closed sacs, lined by a tissue essentially representing skin, and containing sebaceous matter and hairs, some growing from the dermoid surface, and others detached and formed into a loose mass.
Causes. These cysts have been attributed to the enclosure, in the forming embryo, of the formative elements of dermoid tissue, which may or may not remain latent and inactive until maturity, or until the ovary becomes physiologically active.
Another theory is that an impregnated ovum has remained imperfect, developing only the elements of the skin, instead of the whole fœtal body. Many cases cannot by any possibility be included under this head, seeing that the cyst is found at much too early an age, and its bearer has never had sexual intercourse.
Another doctrine is that the dermoid cyst is derived from the normal plastic or formative powers of the ovary, and the product becomes suggestive of parthenogenesis or virgin gestation. The fact that these cysts are not confined to the production of skin and hair, but at times form bone, teeth, nervous and other tissues as well, corroborates this view. On the other hand we must bear in mind that dermoid cysts are much more common in other tissues than they are in the ovaries. Thus they are common in the subcutaneous connective tissue and between the muscles.
The symptoms do not differ essentially from those of simple cysts and treatment is mainly by castration. As the escape of the contents into the peritoneal cavity is especially provocative of infection, the greatest care must be taken to extract the mass whole, or to use the most thorough antiseptic precautions.