Abdominal mass in children.

ABSTRACT

A retrospective study of abdominal mass was carried out among 87 patients admitted to the Department of Paediatrics, Siriraj Hospital, from October 21, 1980 to October 31, 1984. These patients were the pre-school and the school age groups with the age ranged from 1 day to 12 years with the mean of 3.3 years. Among the commonly diseases found were the lymphoma, the neuroblastoma and the Wilms’ tumour which were encountered in 19.5, 17.3 and 14.9 percent respectively. These patients presented with abdominal mass and fever in 60.9 and 35.6 percent of cases respectively. The most commonly organ involved was the liver with malignant disease in the majority of cases. The abdominal masses characterized by well-defined border with firm to hard consistency and nodular surface were found to be malignant while those did with ill-defined border and cystic consistency were benign in nature. The intravenous pyelography was carried out in 68 patients disclosing the abnormal pyelograms in 60 (88.2%). The accuracy of ultrasonography in disclosing the nature of the abdominal mass was 61.5 percent (16/26 patients).