Grossing a Teratoma Specimen

The specimen came from a 37 year old woman who presented with right sided abdominal pain. Her right ovary and fallopian tube twisted cutting off the blood supply which killed the organ.

Red Dot: Fallopian Tube
Green Dot: Ovary

I know it's not as recognizable as the one's you might have seen in regular anatomy books but this is the real deal. The strands of hair are features of the tumor. Teratomas can consist of organs from the three germ layers. You can get fat, hair, tooth, nerve tissues, liver and all sorts of organs from these tumors. Despite how ugly these look, it's often benign unless there are parts seen that exhibit an immature tissue most commonly neural tissue. If the cells look like their mature counterparts, then the risk of malignancy is low.

But discussing the medical stuff isn't the purpose of the post. I just want to flex the teeth I got from this specimen, 7 of them. Despite how common the textbooks says tooth are present in these tumors, I often just get a tuft of hair and skin from opening these specimens up. So seeing a lot of teeth was something unusual but it's not rare.

Teratomas are on top of the list of specimens I dislike cutting up because of how messy these things can be on your hand. Even if you wore gloves, the smell of formalin, fat and unknown just lingers. Imagine wearing nitrile gloves and rubbing your hands with maple syrup and butter while holding a piece of raw meat. It's that plus the smell of formalin and flesh.

The specimen came from this container and those yellow stuff are a mixture of keratin, fat, and sebum which contributes to the oily sensation of touching these specimens.

The ovary becomes a cyst and within the cyst is a clump of flesh composed of different organs. In our local lore, tumors like these fantasy based stories of a missing twin living within the woman's body. I encourage some further readings about teratoma from Mr. Google because this post is just for show and tell.

If you're grossed out, thank you for your time.

Posted with STEMGeeks