Conservative Treatment of Giant Omphalocele

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Abstract
The results obtained in our patients indicate that the prognosis for omphalocele can be improved further if conservative treatment is adopted by surgeons with more confidence. This optimistic outlook also holds good for cases of giant omphalocele containing most of the liver, such as our four patients; in these severer cases, the 15% incidence of favourable results reported by Gross may well increase to 40 or 45% in the absence of other associated malformations incompatible, with life. The use of skin grafts has been proposed in cases of large omphalocele, but the results have been uncertain. Naturally, less severe cases of omphalocele can also be treated conservatively (Fig. 7). The only objection to the conservative method is that it requires prolonged hospitalization, but this objection cannot be accepted in view of the aims of neonatal surgery, i.e. to ensure treatment of the patients'' malformation by the safest, even if costliest, method.

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