The Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, is a tertiary referral hospital with over 7,000 deliveries per year. We report 3 cases of phaeochromocytoma in pregnancy at the hospital in the 20-year period since 1976. The first case was unsuspected and resulted in a maternal death. The subsequent 2 cases were diagnosed antenatally with successful outcomes for both mother and baby. The 3 cases demonstrate the importance of an early antenatal diagnosis and the special management problems of phaeochromocytoma in pregnancy. The diagnosis of phaeochromocytoma should be considered in any pregnant women with severe hypertension, particularly if presenting before 20 weeks' gestation, labile, or associated with sweating, palpitations or headaches.
The introduction of operative laparoscopic surgery for benign adnexal cysts had led to shorter postoperative hospitalization (mean stay of 2.0 days) in association with a low rate of major complications (1.6%). A planned laparoscopic approach was successful in 95.2% (179/188) of patients. The majority of women were premenopausal (93.6%) and the most common procedure performed was an ovarian cystectomy (73.5% of cysts). Three ovarian cysts that were thought to be benign by preoperative and intraoperative assessment were subsequently found to be ovarian tumours of low malignant potential after histological examination. Operative laparoscopy has become the preferred mode of treatment for benign adnexal cysts at the Royal Women's Hospital. It confers a wide range of benefits to patients, reduces health-care costs and appears to be a safe and effective treatment modality.
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