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The use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in pediatric patients has been steadily increasing in recent years. However, its use for diagnosing and treating abdominal tumors in children is still limited compared with adults, especially when malignancy is a matter of debate. Here, we describe the experience at our center with pediatric abdominal tumors to show the safety and feasibility of MIS. Based on a retrospective review of patient records, we selected for study those pediatric patients who had undergone diagnostic exploration or curative resection for abdominal tumors at a single center from January 2010 through August 2015. Diagnostic exploration for abdominal tumors was performed in 32 cases and curative resection in 173 cases (205 operations). MIS was performed in 11 cases of diagnostic exploration (34.4%) and 38 cases of curative resection (21.9%). The mean age of the children who underwent MIS was 6.09 ± 5.2 years. With regard to diagnostic exploration, patient characteristics and surgical outcomes were found to be similar for MIS and open surgery. With regard to curative resection, however, the mean age was significantly lower among the patients who underwent open surgery (4.21 ± 4.20 vs 6.02 ± 4.99 for MIS, P = 0.047), and the proportion of malignancies was significantly higher (80% vs 39.4% for MIS, P

Desmoid tumor (musculoaponeurotic fibromatosis) is a rare locally aggressive soft tissue tumor. A subset of cases is associated with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), governed by the APC (adenomatous polyposis coli) gene. Typically, an intra-abdominal desmoid is a painless lump or mass with a slow progression. We report a case of 14 year old male with Asperger syndrome who presented to our hospital with acute onset of progressively worsening abdominal pain. On the physical examination a large abdominal mass was palpated in the left upper quadrant. An abdominal CT (computerized tomography) scan confirmed the mass. The tumor was resected with free tumor cell margin. The histological diagnosis was desmoid fibromatosis. The nuclear β-catenin immunohistochemistry was positive. The tumor had encroached the splenic vessels and infarcted spleen. This splenic infarction was most likely the cause of the sudden abdominal pain. The patient is alive with no postoperative symptoms or evidence of the disease 6 months after the surgery. Family history and genetic analysis of the APC gene were negative for FAP.