The wall of ovarian dermoid cysts shows various kinds of morphologic patterns. Some of them resemble the features of epidermal and epidermal appendageal tumors.

The purpose of this study is to classify the morphologic features of the wall of ovarian dermoid cyst from the dermatohistopathologic viewpoint.

H&E stained slides of 203 ovarian dermoid cysts were reviewed

Thirteen different patterns of morphologic features were found. They included features of organoid nevus, sebaceous hyperplasia, steatocystoma multiplex, epidermoid cyst, nevus comedonicus, epidermal nevus, apocrine hidrocystoma, syringoma and trichilemmal cyst.

Various epidermal and epidermal appendageal tumors may be associated with ovarian dermoid cyst.