Small pediatric renal neoplasms detected by CT

We describe three children without renal symptoms who had small solitary renal neoplasms detected by CT during a 1 year period. One patient had a benign Wilms tumor variant, another had a renal cell carcinoma, and the third had a solitary focus of renal lymphoma. Although CT helps in preoperative tumor staging and in evaluating the contralateral kidney, it usually cannot distinguish among the various pediatric renal neoplasms. Accordingly, surgical exploration is usually required when a small renal tumor is discovered in a child. When confined to the kidney, small Wilms tumors and renal cell carcinomas are often amenable to local resection or partial nephrectomy.