Minimally Invasive Surgery in Pediatric Surgical Oncology: Practice Evolution at a Contemporary Single-Center Institution and a Guideline Proposal for a Randomized Controlled Study.

Despite the lack of randomized or controlled trials for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in pediatric surgical oncology, the integration of MIS into the surgical practice of pediatric oncology has become increasingly popular. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of MIS in a pediatric tertiary cancer center and compare present use of MIS to that in a previous analysis at our center. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with pediatric cancer treated with MIS at a single institution between 2000 and 2014.

Surgical lung biopsy in children after hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Background/purpose: Pulmonary complications are some of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised pediatric patients. We sought to assess the value of surgical lung biopsy (SLB) in hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) pediatric patients.

Methods: A retrospective review of patients who underwent SLB within one year of HCT between 1999 and 2015 was performed.

Use of ultrasound in diagnosing postoperative small-bowel intussusception in pediatric surgical oncology patients: a single-center retrospective review.

Background: Postoperative intussusception can be a complication of abdominal surgery and often poses a diagnostic dilemma.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of intussusception in children who had recently undergone resection of a primary solid tumor.

Materials And Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all pediatric surgical oncology patients undergoing laparotomy for excision of an abdominal tumor at our institution from 1995 to 2015.

Pathologic fracture in childhood and adolescent osteosarcoma: A single-institution experience.

Purpose: Pathologic fractures occur in 5-10% of pediatric osteosarcoma (OS) cases and have historically been considered a contraindication to limb salvage. Our purpose was to describe the radiographic features of pathologic fracture and examine its impact on local recurrence rates, functional outcomes, and overall survival.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients at our institution from 1990 to 2015 with pathologic fracture at diagnosis or during neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Cardiovascular drugs in the treatment of infantile hemangioma.

Since the introduction of propranolol in the treatment of complicated infantile hemangiomas (IH) in 2008, other different beta-blockers, including timolol, acetabutolol, nadolol and atenolol, have been successfully used for the same purpose. Various hypotheses including vasoconstriction, inhibition of angiogenesis and the induction of apoptosis in proliferating endothelial cells have been advanced as the potential beta-blocker-induced effect on the accelerated IH involution, although the exact mechanism of action of beta-blockers remains unknown. This has generated an extraordinary interest in IH research and has led to the discovery of the role of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in the biology of IH, providing a plausible explanation for the beta-blocker induced effect on IH involution and the development of new potential indications for RAS drugs such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers in the treatment of IH.

Lower Extremity Fibro-Adipose Vascular Anomaly (FAVA): A New Case of a Newly Delineated Disorder.

The acronym FAVA (Fibro-Adipose Vascular Anomaly) has been recently given to a distinct vascular entity that is characterized by fibrofatty infiltration of muscle, unusual phlebectasia with pain, and contracture of the affected extremity. We report a new case of FAVA in a 10-year-old girl with pain in her right lower leg and equinus contracture. As in our case, FAVA typically presents in young females with calf involvement and limited ankle dorsiflexion with local pain.