Ligation of the splenic artery in operations of the spleen in children.

Background: Every effort is made during surgery of the spleen to preserve splenic function. This serves the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the defence mechanisms of the patient against infection in the short - and long-term. With ligation of the splenic artery prior to excision of splenic lesions and splenic repair we aimed to secure control of peri- operative bleeding, thus, making feasible the preservation of the spleen.

Conservative treatment of hemangiomas in infancy and childhood with interferon-alpha 2a.

Hemangioma is the most common tumor of infancy. Most hemangiomas proliferate for 8 to 18 months and then slowly regress over the next 5 to 8 years. So far, steroids have been the established means of treatment, but there have been some reports of the use of interferon-alpha 2a (IFN-A2a) in such tumors.