From Jan. 1980 to Jun, 1988, 90 infants & children suffering from lymphangioma underwent 99 operations at Dept. of Pediatric Surgery, SNUH. The proportion of females to males was 1.43 : 1. Lymphangioma was detected at the age of 1 month in 54.4%
and 1
year in 71.1%. In 49 neonates, 6 patients were operated within 1 month, but 22 patients were operated after 1 year of observation. The size of lymphangioma was as follows; 53 cases below 5 cm, 33 cases between 5 cm and 10 cm and 4 cases over 10
cm.
The
most frequent site of lymphangioma was neck(44 cases). followed by trunk(22 cases), axilla(10 cases), face(8 cases), extremity(4 cases) and internal organs(2 cases). Pathologic diagnosis was cavernous lymphangioma in 42 cases, cystic lymphangioma
in 40
cases, mixed cavernous & cystic lymphangioma in 3 cases and unclassified lymphangioma in 5 cases.
Postoperative complications were wound swelling(15 cases), wound infection(3 cases), facial palsy(2 cases) and recurrence(7 cases).
We compared cavernous lymphangioma with cystic lymphangioma. There was no significant difference in sex, age size and location. But significant difference was existed in postoperative complication(45.2% vs 20.0%, p<0.005). Surgical removal of
cavernous
lymphangioma was more difficult than cystic one, Wound swelling, the most frequent complication after partial excion, was usually managed by conservative treatment.
In the cases of lymphangioma which extends into surrounding tissues and/or infiltrates vital structures, partial excision could be usually acceptable in the clinical aspect.
|