Hemorrhagic ovarian cysts (HOCs) are commonly seen in clinical practice. Most of them disappear spontaneously with follow-up except in minority of cases in which surgical intervention is stated.
Hemorrhagic ovarian cyst (HOC) is an adnexal mass formed because of occurrence of bleeding into a follicular or corpus luteum cyst . Hemorrhagic cysts are commonly seen in clinical practice because hemorrhage into a cyst is usually painful, triggering the patient to consult her physician. They can present with variable clinical symptoms and signs ranging from no symptoms up to acute abdomen.
HOCs are commonly detected by gray-scale ultrasound, but they are often misdiagnosed due to their variable sonographic appearance; mimicking other organic adnexal masses. Most of HOCs are functional, few of them can be neoplastic but they are universally benign . Surgical intervention should be deferred in the management of HOCs as most of them disappear spontaneously with follow-up, so confident clinical and sonographic diagnosis should be attempted to avoid exposing the patient to unnecessary surgery.
Surgical intervention may be indicated in cases of large cysts greater than 5 cm in diameter, severe persistent abdominal pain, failure of the cyst to resolve spontaneously, masses that cannot be confirmed to be benign by ultrasound criteria and finally occurrence of complications such as rupture and ovarian torsion