Abstract
In many hospitals lymph nodes are dissected by pick-up procedure but in our hospital systematically for the patients with neuroblastoma discovered by mass screening. To clarify the characteristics of the metastatic lymph nodes we analysed neuroblastoma patients treated in Hokkaido University Hospital. As a results, there were no correlations among primary sites, pathological diagnosis, urinary VMA-HVA concentration and the cases with positive lymph nodes. By systematic lymphadenectomy. positive lymph nodes were found in 6 out of 26 cases. Postoperative complications occured in five cases, consisting of four chylous ascites and one adhesion ileus. Relaparotomy was required in two cases. As the prognosis of these patients are generally very well, systemic lymph nodes dissection should not be required in early cases. But in cases with positive lymph nodes or advanced cases, lymph nodes around the aorta shuold be carefully looked for.
