COMPLICATIONS RELATED TO 234 STAGING LAPAROTOMIES PERFORMED IN THE INTERGROUP HODGKINS-DISEASE IN CHILDHOOD STUDY

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 96  (3) , 471-478
Abstract
This is a study of 234 children and young adult patients entered in the Intergroup Hodgkin''s Disease in Childhood (stage I-II) Study from Nov. 1975-June 1981 and followed for a mean of 3.8 yr after laparotomy. All patients had a staging laparotomy with total splenectomy, liver biopsy and sampling of abdominal lymph node groups. Four patients (1.7%) have had documented sepsis and 3 have had possible sepsis. There has been no sepsis-related death. Intestinal obstruction requiring operation was noted in 4 patients (no intestinal resection required). Urgent operation was necessary in 2 patients, 1 with ureteral obstruction and 1 with ovarian torsion, following a repositioning procedure, neither of these patients died. Organisms in the 4 patients with positive blood cultures were Streptococcus pneumoniae (2) and Haemophilus influenzae (2). Of the 234 patients in the study, 194 (83%) had received polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine and 174 (74%) were taking prophylactic antibiotics. One of the 2 patients with pneumococcal sepsis had not been vaccinated, and the 2nd was vaccinated only during radiotherapy. Only 1 of the 4 patients with positive blood cultures was on a prophylactic antibiotic treatment regimen at the time of the septic episode. The liabilities in employing laparotomy-splenectomy for the evaluation of pediatric patients with Hodgkin''s disease include both general surgical complications and an increase in the risk of hyperacute infection, specifically related to encapsulated species. The latter appears to be modified to a major degree by current prophylactic measures or therapy.