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.