Tuberculosis of the Ovary.—Tuberculosis of the ovary is usually secondary to tuberculosis of the Fallopian tubes. In tuberculosis of the peritoneum the ovaries are often found to be involved, in some cases without accompanying disease of the tube. In phthisical women the ovaries have been found, in rare instances, to be the only portion of the genital apparatus in which secondary deposit of tubercles took place.
Williams states that primary tuberculosis of the ovaries has not yet been described.
The surface of the ovary may be covered with miliary tubercles, or they may be scattered through the substance of the gland. In other cases the ovary contains cavities filled with cheesy material or pus, forming a tuberculous abscess.
There are no characteristic symptoms of tuberculosis of the ovaries. The condition is usually found at operation or at autopsy, associated with tuberculosis of the peritoneum or of some other part of the genital organs, as the Fallopian tubes and the uterus.
The treatment consists in oöphorectomy, unless operation is contraindicated on account of extensive involvement of other structures.
Tumors of the Ovarian ligament.—Fibroid and sarcomatous tumors have occasionally been found in the ovarian ligament. Doran has reported a fibroid of the ovarian ligament that weighed 17 pounds. The writer has removed a sarcoma of the ovarian ligament that weighed 5 pounds.
It is impossible to distinguish these tumors from similar growths of the ovary. They demand like treatment.