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This topic is from The 5-Minute Consult Clinical Companion to Women's Health About our sources

Vulvar mass Updated 4/2010

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BASICS

  • Description
  • General Prevention
  • Epidemiology
  • Risk Factors
  • Pathophysiology
  • Etiology

DIAGNOSIS

  • Signs and Symptoms
  • Tests
  • Differential Diagnosis

TREATMENT

  • Surgery

Follow-Up

  • Prognosis
  • Patient Monitoring
The following is an excerpt....
BASICS
Description

A wide variety of pathologic processes can present as a vulvar mass. These can be classified as benign, pre-cancerous, or malignant, although many of these entities are points on a spectrum of disease. For example lichen sclerosus can lead to vulvar epithelial neoplasia (VIN), which can progress to squamous cell carcinoma.

  • Benign disease:
    • Benign tumors can be cystic (mucous cyst, Bartholin’s cyst), anatomic (hernia), or solid (fibroma, lipoma).
    • Infections and abscesses also can present as a mass.
  • Premalignant disease:
    • The undifferentiated type of VIN is associated with HPV infection (especially subtypes 16 and 18) and often affects younger women.
    • The differentiated type of VIN is often keratinizing and is associated with lichen sclerosis but not with ...

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See Also
Images >
Figure 13.2 Small (T1) vulvar carcinoma at the posterior fourchette.Credit: Jonathan S. Berek and Neville F. Hacker, Practical Gynecologic Oncology, Fourth Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005.
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