Rare triad of benign ovarian tumor, ascites and pleural effusion that resolves after resection of the tumor.
- Accounts for about 1% of ovarian tumours
Diagnostic criteria:
Redefined by Meigs in 1945
- Ovarian fibroma
- Pseudo‐Meigs syndrome: If other benign tumour of ovary present (thecoma, granulosa cell tumor or Brenner tumor)
- Ascites
- Pleural effusion(s)
- Removal of tumour cures the patient
History:
In 1852, Blin published the description of an ovarian fibroma with abdominal effusion in the Société de Biology de Paris. Demons of Bordeaux, France, gave a report to the Société de Chirurgie de Paris in 1887, that nine of 50 patients with ovarian cysts were cured of their ascites and hydrothorax by removal of the adnexal cyst. In 1937, Joe Vincent Meigs (1892–1963), an American professor of the Harvard Medical School of Gynaecology and John W Cass reported a series of 7 cases of ovarian fibroma associated with ascites and hydrothorax. Even though the association of benign ovarian tumors and pleural effusion was reported before, it was Meigs and Cass who reported the resolution of ascites and pleural effusion after the removal of the tumor. It was coined as Meigs’ syndrome in 1937 by Rhodes and Terrell.
Eventually, several authors reported similar cases, and Meigs syndrome became a distinct entity. Meigs eventually redefined the syndrome in 1954. This syndrome is sometimes called Demons-Meigs syndrome after Demons who described a similar presentation before Meigs.
Differential diagnosis:
- Malignant ovarian tumour
- Nephrotic syndrome
- Congestive cardiac failure
- Liver cirrhosis
- Tuberculosis