Intra-abdominal tumors in children.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of the present study was to observe the histopathological pattern of intra-abdominal tumors in children less than 16 years.


METHODS
This is a descriptive study.


METHODS
The study was carried out at the Department of Histopathology, Children's Hospital and the Institute of Child Health and King Edward Medical College, Lahore, over a period of 5 years, from January 1997 to December 2002.


METHODS
The histopathological and demographic data of 264 intra-abdominal tumors of both the sexes under 16 years of age was collected and analyzed to determine the various morphological types of intra-abdominal tumors in relation to age and sex.


RESULTS
Neuroblastoma was the most common tumor constituting 29.6% of all cases, followed by Wilms' tumor (25.1%). Others were non-Hodgkins lymphomas (15.5%), germ cell tumors and hepatoblastoma (9%) each, rhabdomyosarcoma (4.4%), hepatocellular carcinoma (1.4%) and miscellaneous (6%). Majority of the patients (77.2%) were under 5 years of age. The male to female ratio was 1.1:0.9.


CONCLUSIONS
Intra-abdominal tumors are more common in males. Most of the tumors were noted in children less than 5 years of age.
Department of Pathology, King Edward Medical College, Lahore. koool@brain.net.pk
Ghazala
G
Hanif
D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D017678:Sex Distribution