Background: Management of abdominal masses still pose a major challenge for pediatrician and surgeons with many controversy as regards the best investigatory tools.
Aim of the work: This study was designated to evaluate the role of diagnostic laparoscopy in investigating equivocal pediatric masses that had undergone other imaging modalities.
Patients and methods: A combined prospective and retrospective multicenter study over a period of 12 years from January 2005 to December 2016 was undertaken. This study included all children aged from 3 months to 15 years. Those having a documented diagnosis through other imaging modalities such as sonographic and/or computed tomography (CT) guided biopsy were excluded. All patients underwent multiport diagnostic laparoscopy for biopsy of the mass. All specimens were histologically assessed basically using Hematoxylin and Eosin (H and E) staining; some specimens had been immunohistochemically studied.
Results: One hundred and thirty-two patients were recruited in the study. They were 69 males and 63 females with a male to female ratio of1.1:1. The age ranged from 3 months up to 15 years with the mean age of 2.7 ± 0.8 years. Out of the total studied group, 54 patients were diagnosed with neuroblastoma (40.9%), while 66 (50%) were having nephroblastoma. The remaining 12 (9.1%) were having non-Hodgkin's abdominal lymphoma. Not all patients showed any complication related to the procedure. The mean follow up period was 3.6 years. Most of the cases (n=121) despite having a different diagnosis, were clinically staged as grade I to grade II (91.7%). Neither intraoperative nor postoperative complications were recorded during this technique. The mean operative time was 72 mins ± 20 in the earliest group; yet, it has declined to be 32 ± 12 minutes in the latest group due to the advancement of the learning curve.
Conclusion: Laparoscopy is accurate and safe for investigating pediatric solid abdominal masses. It should be used as the sole tool for biopsy of solid abdominal tumors in pediatrics.