Laparotomy findings in lymphangiogram-staged I and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

Ninety patients with Stage I or II, including extranodal (E), presentations of non-Hodkin's lymphoma were investigated by laparotomy, either for the definitive staging of patients with peripheral presentations or for diagnosis of abdominal disease. Sixty-eight patients had staging laparotomies after extensive work-up, which included lymphangiography and bone marrow biopsy. The remaining 22 patients had laparotomies for diagnosis of abdominal symptoms or for management of unrelated surgical problems, with lyphoma being found incidentally. The incidence of positive abdominal findings in the 68 patients who had staging laparotomies depended on histologic subtype. In nodular lymphoma patients, abdominal disease was found in 17 of 28 (61%) and in diffuse lymphoma patients, in 9 of 40 (22.5%). For patients with nodular lymphomas upstaged by laparotomy, the positive findings tended to cluster around an axis consisting of the celiac, porta-hepatic, para-aortic, and root of the mesentery lymph nodes. In addition, 64% of these patients had splenic involvement. For the diffuse lymphoma upstaged by laparotomy, the distribution of positive findings was similar to that of the nodular lymphoma group; however, only 1 patient had splenic involvement. By contrast, in approximately half of the diffuse lymphoma patients who had laparotomies for diagnosis, the gastrointestinal tract was found to be involved in addition to the previously cited lymph nodes.