[Treatment of Wilms' tumor (author's transl)].

Uniform treatment based on the therapeutic approach of the 1st and 2nd US National Wilms' Tumor Study was decided on in March 1976 by paediatricians, surgeons, urologists and radiotherapists in Austria. Wilms' tumour was diagnosed in 34 children between 1 january 1976 an 29 february 1980 (stage I: n = 11, stage II: n = 8, stage III: n = 8, stage IV: n = 7). Parents of two children refused treatments; both children have since died of metastases.

[Illness due to enterolith in children (author's transl)].

The aim of this paper is to emphasize the extreme importance of the rectal examination and exact palpation of the abdomen in cases of obscure abdominal pain, especially as it is purely a question of a simple and inexpensive diagnostical procedure. The rectal examination should always be carried out prior to any large scale diagnostical procedures as it does, in the care of positive findings, spare the child the considerable burden of X-rays. If, after an appendectomy, the same pains that led to the operation continue, one must conclude that their cause has not been removed by the operation.

[How dangerous is splenectomy in Hodgkin's disease? (author's transl)].

Serious complications aetiologically connected with the operation were found in 8 out of 51 patients (19 females, 32 males) who had undergone splenectomy for Hodgkin's disease. Weighing potential complications against the expected beneficial effects, clear indications for splenectomy are only found in stages I and IIa. In all more progressed clinical stages splenectomy should only be performed when 1) platelet deficiency existed prior to treatment, 2) additional irradiation of the splenic area is to be avoided, 3) oophoropexy is to be performed at the same time.

[Polycythaemia as sole symptom of renal adenoma (author's transl)].

In two children, a 9 year-old boy and a 10 1/2 year-old girl, who presented with polycythaemia as the only symptom, the expected renal tumour was only found after exclusion of all other causes of polycythaemia. The delay in diagnosis was caused by technically inadequate intravenous urograms, which were erroneously passed as normal. In one child low kv X-ray exposition of the kidneys led to the diagnosis of a renal tumour.