[Cytological study of the puncture biopsy specimens of the Douglas' pouch for early diagnosis of ovarian tumors].

The conducted studies indicated the diagnostic opportunities of a cytologic analysis of exudates and smears from the Douglas space in patients with a suspicion to ovarian tumor. Tumor cells may be present in the peritoneal cavity not only in different stages of malignant ovarian tumors, but also in secernent and proliferating cystadenomas. A correlation between the peritoneal cell content in patients with different forms of ovarian neoplasms and press-smears from the dissected surface of the removed tumors and histological sections indicated the morphological identitiy of tumor elements and enabled the determination of the cytological criteria for the differential diagnosis of ovarian tumors prior to surgical intervention.