HES 130/0.4 (Voluven) or human albumin in children younger than 2 yr undergoing non-cardiac surgery. A prospective, randomized, open label, multicentre trial.

Background And Objective: For perioperative volume therapy in infants and young children, human albumin has frequently been the colloid of choice. Recently, HES 130/0.4 (6% hydroxyethyl starch, Voluven; Fresenius Kabi, Bad Homburg, Germany) was developed, which demonstrated improved pharmacokinetics and a favourable safety profile in adults compared with hydroxyethyl starch products with a less rapid metabolization.

Initial patient characteristics can predict pattern and risk of relapse in localized rhabdomyosarcoma.

Purpose: Evaluation of primary tumor-, treatment-, and patient-related factors predicting relapse pattern, risk, and survival after relapse with the aim to design a risk-adapted, tumor-directed surveillance program for patients with localized rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS).

Patients And Methods: One thousand one hundred sixty-four patients with nonmetastatic RMS achieved complete remission at the end of multimodal therapy in the consecutive trials of the Cooperative Weichteilsarkom Studiengruppe (CWS)-81, CWS-86, CWS-91, and CWS-96 between 1980 and 2002 (median follow-up, 5 years). Three hundred thirty-seven of these individuals developed either locoregional, metastatic, or combined relapses.

Successful management of a resistant renal artery stenosis in a child using a 4 mm cutting balloon catheter.

Percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) is a well-established method to treat renal artery stenosis (RAS) in children and adults. However, a significant number of stenoses might not be treated by interventional techniques due to the inability to dilate the RAS. Conventional balloon angioplasty with a high-pressure coronary angioplasty balloon at 20 atm was unable to dilate a significant RAS in a 12-year-old child with severe renovascular hypertension (RR 195/125 mm Hg).

Aneurysm of the inferior vena cava in a 5-year-old boy.

The authors present a case of an aneurysm of the inferior vena cava in a 5-year-old boy. The boy suffered from acute pulmonary and paradoxical cerebral embolism after a minor abdominal trauma. Magnetic resonance angiography was the key for correct diagnosis of the retroperitoneal process and helped develop a strategy for surgery.

Global tissue oxygenation during normovolaemic haemodilution in young children.

Sixteen patients (1-8 years) scheduled for major general surgery were chosen for the study. They were divided into two groups according to the replacement solution used for haemodilution (HD); whether 6% middle molecular weight hydroxyethyl starch (HES) or 6% dextran 60 (DEX). After induction of general anaesthesia and pulmonary artery catheterization, a precalculated amount of autologous blood was withdrawn while the patient's autologous blood was simultaneously replaced by either HES or DEX.