[Minimally invasive surgery of neural tumors in childhood]

The aim of the paper is to describe the experience in our center with the use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) of neural tumors in childhood.

Descriptive and retrospective study of patients diagnosed with neural neoplasia (neuroblastoma and neuroganglioma) on whom MIS technique surgery has been performed between October 2012 and December 2017. The inclusion criteria were patients with a neural tumor diagnosis who, at the time of the intervention, did not have imaging-defined risk factors (IDRFs). Patients with a different diagnosis than neural tumor or with IDRFs were excluded from the study.

The study comprises 19 cases (6 female and 13 male) with a median age of 47 months. According to the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Staging System (INRGSS) classification, nine cases were in L1 stage, six in L2, two in M and two in MS. Laparoscopy was used in 14 patients (12 adrenal and 2 abdominal tumors) and thoracoscopy was used in the other 5. In 4 of the 19 cases (21%), conversion to open surgery was needed due to fibrosis in 2 cases and vascular structures entrapment in another 2 (3 in laparoscopy and 1 in thoracoscopy). There were no surgical complications, achieving complete resection in all cases. Three cases showed postsurgical adverse effects grade I and II, according to Clavien-Dindo classification. After a median of 27 months of follow up, two patients showed disease progression without local recurrence.

In conclusion, MIS are useful techniques in the surgical exeresis of non-disseminated neural tumors without IDRFs.