title: Chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura in children: case reports of spontaneous recovery without splenectomy.
abstract: Children with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura generally show a favorable outcome with a high spontaneous recovery rate even many years after the initial diagnosis. In this retrospective study, 5 out of 12 children with chronic ITP achieved a spontaneous recovery. A careful follow-up appears to be adequate for most of the patients, reserving splenectomy to the rare severely affected patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Paediatric Oncology, Catholic University, Rome, Italy. ruggiero@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Annunziata
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lazzareschi
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ridola
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Attinà
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Riccardi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010976:Platelet Count; D011336:Probability; D016553:Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D013156:Splenectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data