Surgical intervention in complications of acute leukemia

Aggressive chemotherapy has dramatically increased the number and duration of remissions in acute leukemia. Concomitant with improved survival has been an increased incidence of complications necessitating surgery in patients with chemotherapy-induced pancytopenia. In the past, patients such as the three described here rarely survived, whether managed conservatively or surgically. All three of these achieved partial or complete remisson. In view of our experience plus reports in the literature, we feel that aggressive surgical intervantion can result in a greater percentage of patients surviving the complications of therapy, and this in turn can lead to a higher incidence of complete remission.