Search

Wandering spleen is a rare entity in child. It is generated by laxity or failure of development of spleen ligaments causing the migration of the spleen from its normal anatomical site to another abdominal or pelvic location. It can be congenital or acquired. The most dangerous complication is the occurrence of torsion of the spleen around its pedicle. aim: Report of a new observation and present the diagnostic, treatment and outcome aspects of torsion of ectopic spleen.We report the case of a 17 years old girl who was admitted for an acute abdomen pain and fever. Clinical examination revealed generalized abdominal defence and an under umbilical mass which was very painful on palpation. Ultrasound and CT scans have visualized the pelvic mass, which measured four inches long axis. The spleen wasn't on its normal seat. The patient was operated urgently. Surgical exploration showed that the mass corresponded to a wandering spleen in pelvic position, necrotic and twisted around its pedicle. A splenectomy was performed with simple sequences.torsion of the wandering spleen can progress to total necrosis of the spleen mass. This complication is feared in any ectopic and painful spleen.

Background: The definitive treatment of Hirschsprung's disease is the removal of the aganglionic bowel by a pull-through surgery. In most cases, this surgery is performed in infancy or in the neonatal period as presentation in older children and adulthood is uncommon. Materials and Methods: It is a retrospective study of 20 patients above two-year-old who underwent a transanal Soave one-stage endorectal pull-through procedure for Hirschsprung's disease between January 2002 and December 2010. Results: Twenty patients were recruited in this study. Fourteen were males and six were females. Patient ages ranged from 2 to 14 years (median age: five years and three months). All patients presented with persistent constipation and abdominal distension. Two of them had an intestinal obstruction that required colostomy. Ten patients (50%) had a recto-sigmoid Hirschsprung's disease. All patients were operated on using a Soave one-stage endorectal pull-through procedure. The laparoscopy was necessary during the pull-through in three cases. The average duration of the intervention was 240 minutes. That represents almost the double of the duration of the same procedure in newborns and infants in our department (130 minutes). Early postoperative complications included one case of anastomosis leakage and one case of intussusception. Late postoperative complications were perineum irritation in five cases (25%), anal stenosis in four cases (20%) and enterocolitis in one case (5%). None of our patients developed fecal incontinence. Soiling was reported in four cases (20%). There was no death. Conclusion: Soave transanal one-stage endorectal pull-through is safely feasible in children of more than two years of age. Laparoscopy may be necessary whenever there are difficulties in the pull-through.

Pilomatrixomas are uncommon in children and are frequently misdiagnosed preoperatively. We report a two-year-old female patient with an unusual localization in the earlobe. The lesion was treated by simple enucleation and in two years of follow-up there has been no evidence of recurrence. The case is being reported in view of its rarity and unusual location.