[Neuroblastoma with bone marrow invasion. A multicenter study. Work Group of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Surgery]. / Neuroblastomas con médula ósea invadida. Estudio multicéntrico. Grupo de Trabajo de la Sociedad Española de Cirugía Pediátrica.

By means of a retrospective study made of multiple centres, it was aimed to determine which variables could be influential at the moment of diagnosis in the prognostic of patients suffering neuroblastoma and medullary bone affection. Fifty four cases of patients belonging to a total of ten hospital centers have been revised in a period of five years. The ages under study spanned from three months to eight years of age (mean = 2.83 years). For the analysis of the patients, they were divided into two groups: one being composed of the deceased patients and the other of the surviving. The deceased patients were of a more advanced age, the delay in the diagnosis was greater, the primitive tumor was found to be more frequently located in the adrenal glands, the metastasis appeared more readily in multiples, and the effectiveness of the treatment was less, resulting in lower cases of remission and a less radical surgery. The only difference with respect to other publications is that in the case of surviving patients, the number of cases of enolase and ferritin is more frequently pathological.

[Neuroblastoma IV-S. A multicenter study. Work Group of Pediatric Oncology. Spanish Society of Pediatric Surgery]. / Neuroblastoma IV-S. Estudio multicéntrico." Grupo de Trabajo de Oncología Pediátrica". Sociedad Española de Cirugía Pediátrica.

A retrospective multicentric study of 23 patients with stage IV-S neuroblastoma treated in 10 national Pediatric Surgery Departments between January 1988 and December 1992, is presented. All cases were classified as stage IV-S following staging criteria proposed by Evans et al. The age diagnosis was an average of 3 months. An acute clinical course was seen in 7 patients. Primary sites of the tumor were: adrenal gland in 6 patients (30.5%), abdominal paravertebral in 3 (13%) and unknown in 2 (9%). Distant tumor sites were: liver in 20 patients, bone marrow in 9, and skin in 5. There were not systematic therapeutic approach, in 16 cases (69%) the primary tumor was resected, 18 (78%) received chemotherapy, the liver was irradiated in 3 (13%), and 1 case (4%) received no treatment at all. One children died. The overall disease-free survival is 95.6% at 43 months post-diagnosis. A common treatment protocol is proposed, with systematic determination of N-myc oncogene which will indicate the appropriate therapy.

[Intradural anesthesia: an alternative in surgery on premature infants]. / Anestesia intradural: una alternativa en la cirugía en los lactantes prematuros.

The greater survival of premature infants, the frequency with which these children present a pathology of surgical treatment, and their physiological immaturity, particularly in the respiratory system, entail a great many difficulties in the postoperative process. With the aim of decreasing these postoperative difficulties and because of the publications of several articles with the same goal, it is implemented a study of spinal anesthesia with isobaric bupivacaine in the premature babies put under a treatment or surgery of the inguinal canal, in order to asses the efficiency of this technique and the cardiovascular consequences. The average duration of the anesthesia was 59 +/- 13 minutes. The latency period is practically nonexistent and the average level that was achieved is situated between D4-D6, which is enough so as to carry out the operation without problems and achieving a complete analgesia in the inguinal area. It has not been observed relevant hemodynamic alterations. The outcomes are obvious, for the difficulties disappear, especially those coming from the respiratory system in the general anesthesia with intubation such as apnea, cyanosis and bradycardia, stridor and atelectasis. This kind of anesthesia allows the surgeon a perfect relaxation and analgesia and the children a comfort throughout the surgical event. By way of conclusion, the spinal anesthesia is a good option instead of the general anesthesia for suckling babies because of the risk of respiratory difficulties they present, alone all when they are premature and they are recovering from a syndrome of respiratory difficulty.