CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gynecological Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1659143
This article is part of the Research TopicCutting-Edge Strategies in Screening, Prevention, and Treatment in Gynaecologic OncologyView all 32 articles
Case Report: Surgical Resection of Ovarian Teratoma in Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis Complicated by Severe Pneumonia
Provisionally accepted
- The People's Hospital of Leshan, Leshan, China
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Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis is one of the most recognized forms of autoimmune encephalitis. We report the case of a 25-year-old woman with ovarian teratoma-associated anti-NMDAR encephalitis complicated by severe pneumonia. Despite treatment at multiple hospitals, she remained comatose with involuntary perioral myoclonus and severe pulmonary infection while intubated. After aggressive anti-infective therapy at our center, her condition deteriorated, and extubation failed; subsequent tracheostomy stabilized the infection and allowed uneventful laparoscopic removal of the ovarian teratoma. Postoperatively, consciousness returned, convulsions ceased, and pulmonary infection continued to improve. The patient was discharged in good condition. Early screening for ovarian teratomas is essential. When teratoma-associated anti-NMDAR encephalitis presents with severe pneumonia, aggressive infection control, meticulous airway management, and timely surgical resection combined with immunotherapy can substantially improve clinical outcomes.
Keywords: autoimmune encephalitis, anti-NMDAR encephalitis, Ovarian teratoma, Severe pneumonia, Surgical removal
Received: 03 Jul 2025; Accepted: 16 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Ren, Shao, Fu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wei Zhang, zhangwei_hxicu@163.com
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