Postnatal outcomes and prognosis of fetal intra-abdominal solid masses diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the clinical outcomes and prognosis of children who were prenatally diagnosed with solid space-occupying abdominal lesions by ultrasound.Methods:This study retrospectively enrolled 30 children with solid space-occupying abdominal lesions that were indicated by prenatal ultrasound at Children's Hospital of Fudan University from March 2015 to March 2021. Prenatal ultrasound findings, postnatal treatment, clinical outcomes, and prognosis were analyzed.Results:These subjects included 18 male and 12 female infants, with the median gestational age at the first sonographic diagnosis of 36 weeks (28 to 39 weeks). The intra-abdominal solid masses were postnatally confirmed to be located in liver, retroperitoneum, and gastrointestinal tract, which were hepatic hemangioma ( n=14), hepatoblastoma ( n=2), neuroblastoma ( n=6), abdominal teratoma ( n=4), adrenal hematoma ( n=1), adrenocortical adenoma ( n=1), hyperplasia of renal capillary ( n=1), and gastrointestinal teratoma ( n=1). The accuracy of prenatal ultrasound in detecting the location of masses was 73% (22/30) and which was 13/16 in detecting masses from liver and 9/14 in that outside the liver. Among the 30 cases, 73% (22/30) were benign tumors, and 27% (8/30) were malignant tumors (hepatoblastoma in two cases and neuroblastoma in six cases). Among 15 patients with benign tumors (hepatic hemangioma and adrenal hematoma) who received close follow-up or drug therapy, tumor/lesion regression occurred in 13 cases and the other two were observed with stable hepatic hemangiomas. Fourteen patients, including six with neuroblastoma, two with hepatoblastoma, five with teratoma, one with adrenocortical adenoma, and one with hyperplasia of renal capillary, had good prognosis after primary tumor resection or combined with postoperative chemotherapy. One hepatoblastoma case died after withdrawing treatment. The overall survival rate was 97% (29/30) with a median follow-up time of 24 months (4 to 60 months). Conclusions:Prenatal ultrasound has high accuracy in identifying the anatomic region of fetal solid space-occupying abdominal lesions. With close postnatal follow-up and proper treatment, most of the affected fetuses will have a good outcome and prognosis.