title: [Role of late laparotomy in Hodgkin's disease].
abstract: Between 1976 and 1986 42 restaging laparotomies (RL) were performed in patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD). Eleven patients had received only radiotherapy, 25 chemotherapy and 6 patients had received radiotherapy plus chemotherapy. Thirty-seven patients underwent RL because of the uncertain answer to therapy. In 17 cases the persistence of abdominal disease was suspected; in 20 patients, on the contrary, the RL was performed to confirm the clinical evaluation of complete remission (CR). In the first group 6 RL (35%) were positive, in the latter group in one case only (5%) evidence of disease was found. In the last 5 patients RL was performed for abdominal recurrence after a Relapse free Survival (RFS) of 60 months (range 25-110 months). RFS of pathologically evaluated patients is significantly higher than that of those clinically evaluated. The great number of false positive (65%) suggests a role of RL in avoiding any further therapy in patients having no clear signs of disease after treatment completion; thus permitting a lower incidence of complications such as: induced leukaemia, neoplasia and infertility.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007813:Laparotomy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013997:Time Factors
vernacular_title: Il ruolo della laparotomia tardiva nel morbo di Hodgkin.