Orthopaedic patterns of retroperitoneal tumors in pediatric population.

The paper presents three children of various ages with tumors of different histology localized in the retroperitoneum. The children underwent investigation as orthopedic cases at the Orthopedic Department of the Belgrade University Childrens' Hospital. All children had orthopedic symptoms and several similar clinical findings: high or increased red blood cell (RBC) sedimentation, increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and hypochromic anemia. Retroperitoneal tumors were diagnosed by echosonography. Further investigations were targeted towards histological verification and treatment protocol for retroperitoneal tumor. Since the children were presented chronologically to the deparmtent, diagnosis was reached more rapidly. It is our aim to draw attention to the possibility that various retroperitoneal tumors can be presented as orthopedic diseases. If symptomatology of retroperitoneal tumors is suspected and particularly in insufficiently clear cases, one should always perform echsonography of the retroperitoneum as a non-agressive, simple, readily available and reliable diagnostic method. This reduces examination time, direction of patients to further treatment according to pathology and also in reduction of risk both for patient and orthopedic surgeon who normally are presented with such diseases (Fig. 2, Ref. 10). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.