Sequential laparoscopy and laparotomy combined with bone marrow biopsy in staging Hodgkin's disease

In a series of 121 unselected, previously untreated patients with Hodgkin's disease staging laparoscopy combined with needle bone marrow biopsy detected the presence of extranodal disease in the liver or marrow or both in 9% of the patients. A spleen biopsy yielded positive findings in 13%. Subsequent laparotomy with open marrow biopsy performed in 110 patients with negative liver and marrow findings from the first combined procedure revealed the presence of extranodal hepatic lymphoma in two additional spleens. Surgical marrow biopsy was always interpretey. Although devoid of major complications, biopsy of the spleen is not recommended as a routine procedure in staging laparoscopy. This prospective sequential study confirms that laparoscopy plus needle marrow biopsy is a useful, rapid, safe, and economic procedure to establish stage IV disease in the large majority of patients with nodal involvement. Considering the recent more extensive use of chemotherapy for intermediate stages of Hodgkin's disease, our findings suggest that laparotomy with splenectomy needs a critical re-evaluation as a routine staging procedure for patients with no overt extranodal lymphoma.