PUNE: In a rare case of Gartner’s duct cyst, a 23-year-old woman with only one kidney was recently treated at Ruby Hall Clinic in Pune. She was suffering from severe stomach pain and had earlier undergone surgery to remove a multi-cystic kidney two years ago.
Continued pain in abdomen led to her ureter being excised, but her renal abnormality wasn’t the only cause for this incessant pain.
She was diagnosed with hydrosalpinx (fluid in the fallopian tube). Upon seeking a second opinion in Ruby Hall Clinic, gynaecologist Dr Sunita Tandulwadkar found that her condition was known as Gartner’s duct cyst.
This is a rare developmental anomaly commonly seen on the sidewalls of the vagina. A Gartner’s duct is present while a baby is developing in the womb. However, this most often disappears after birth. If parts of the duct remain, they may collect fluid and develop into a vaginal wall cyst later in life. So rare is this condition that only one to two per cent of the population is known to have developed it.
Tandulwadkar, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Chief of IVF and Endoscopy Centre, Ruby Hall Clinic said that while this condition is unheard of, what made her case even more unusual was the fact that the cyst was present from the pelvic floor up to the renal angle in the lateral pelvic wall on the left side.
“While such cysts are known to be 2-3 cms in size, this one was almost 12 cms long. It contained multiple cystic dilatations, wherein one small cyst is connected to the rest. To our knowledge, there is no documented case in medical history with such a size, location and presentation of Gartner’s duct cyst,” said Tandulwadkar.
She added that a minimally invasive approach using a laparoscopic surgery was undertaken wherein the long tube-like cyst was excised.
“On sending the extracted cyst for a histopathological review, the results indeed confirmed our diagnosis,” concluded Tandulwadkar.
