Teratoma: a set of teeth in the pelvis

Dear Editor,A 25-year-old woman with neither history of trauma nor otherprevious medical history reported a 2-month history of low backpain. Physical examination revealed no significant abnormality.Conventional abdominal radiography showed the presence of alarge, heterogeneous, calcified 10-cm mass in her left lower pel-vis (Figures 1A and 1B). Pelvic ultrasonography (US) revealed alarge heterogeneous mass containing internal hyperechoic areaswith acoustic dirty shadowing in the left adnexal area, extendingto the rectouterine pouch.The patient underwent pelvic surgery with left adnexectomy.Macroscopically, the lesion measured 10.3 ×9.2 × 8.6 cm and wasfilled with a yellowish viscous material, hair, and several tooth frag-ments (Figure 1C). Analysis of histological specimens confirmeda mature teratoma containing mesodermal, endodermal, andectodermal tissue.A series of recent publications in the Brazilian radiologicalliterature have evaluated the role of radiology in the study of ab-dominal tumors