The Incidence of Complications Following Staging Laparotomy for Hodgkin’s Disease in Children

overwhelming infection in young patients after splenectomy. There has been controversy regarding this point over the years. It is now believed such a risk is present in children with certain serious underlying conditions that lead to removal of the spleen therapeutically.6’7”4 The anergy often associated with HD and the known increased frequency of infections of various types in these children suggest a possible heightened vulnerability to overwhelming infection of the postsplenectomy HD child. Purely aside from the question of hyperacute infections, many surgeons have been reluctant to subject Hodgkin’s disease children to a major procedure that is not therapeu tic. Even conceding the diagnostic value of the laparotomy, the surgeon is concerned about the attendant morbidity as well as the risk ofoperative death. Data of the morbidity, mortality, and longer term risks of staging laparotomy encountered in a large number of children