The efficacy of cervical mediastinotomy in children

Objective: To report our experiences with surgical diagnostic procedures in patients with mediastinal pathologies.
Materials and Methods: From 1995 to 2004, seven children with mediastinal pathology had seven surgical procedures for the purpose of histological tissue diagnosis. Of these seven patients, five were male and the average age was 11 years. Anterior mediastinotomy was performed in all patients.
Results: Tissue diagnosis was achieved in all cases, enabling a specific diagnosis. The diagnoses were lymphoblastic lymphoma ( n = 1), Hodgkin disease ( n = 1) and thymus hyperplasia ( n = 5). There was no operation-related mortality although one patient required a postoperative blood transfusion.
Conclusion: Anterior mediastinotomy is a safe surgical procedure, which can be performed quickly in children with a high diagnostic yield.

Keywords
Cervical anterior mediastinotomy, hyperplastic thymus, lymphoma, mediastinal mass