title: Laparoscopic lymph node biopsy in intra-abdominal lymphoma: high diagnostic accuracy achieved with a minimally invasive procedure.
abstract: Ultrasound or computed tomography-guided percutaneous lymph nodes biopsy often do not supply sufficient tissue for the histopathologic diagnosis of a lymphoma. Laparoscopic lymph node biopsy (LLB) has the advantage of obtaining the entire lymph node and avoiding the invasivity and all the possible complications of a laparotomy. The aim of the present study is to assess the safety and diagnostic accuracy of the LLB in intra-abdominal lymphoma. Between April 1999 and October 2005, 36 LLB were performed in 35 patients to rule out or to follow the progression of a lymphoma. The clinical outcome and the pathology reports were analyzed retrospectively. A conversion to laparotomy was necessary in 2 cases due to intraoperative difficulties (5.8%). No major postoperative complications or mortality occurred. Mean hospital stay was 2.1 days. In 9 patients, LLB was performed to follow a possible progression of the lymphoma, whereas in 26 patients it was used to establish a diagnosis. Two repeated LLB were necessary to achieve a correct diagnosis in 1 patient. Fourteen patients had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 6 patients had Hodgkin lymphoma, 9 patients presented an infiltration by primitive or metastatic tumors, and 7 patients had benign lymphadenopathy. In 97% of the cases, LLB supplied the necessary information for the correct diagnosis, classification, and subsequent therapeutic decisions. In conclusion, LLB is a safe and effective procedure. Its diagnostic accuracy is superior to percutaneous techniques. LLB can be proposed as the procedure of choice to sample deep lymphatic tissues in patients with intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy at a very low morbidity rate and as an outpatient procedure in selected cases.
authors.affiliation: Departments of General and Transplant Surgery, University of Genoa, San Martino Hospital, Genoa, Italy. Marco.Casaccia@unige.it
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casaccia
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Torelli
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cavaliere
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Panaro
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nardi
authors.forename: Edoardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spriano
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bacigalupo
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gentile
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Valente
mesh_terms: D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D007813:Laparotomy; D007902:Length of Stay; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008206:Lymphatic Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology*; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012449:Safety