Sacrccoccygeal Teratoma in Children——An Analysis of 86 Cases

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This paper presents summary of the authors'experience in treating 86 cases of sacrococcygeal teratoma as well as an analysis together with 191 such cases reported in Chinese medical literature since 1954.The analysis shows 230 of them were benign(83%)and 47 were malignant(17%),the ratio of male to female being 1:2.6. According to the symptoms and findings at operation.the tumors can be divided into 5 types.Among the authors'cases,74 were benign(86%)and 12 malignant(14%).The follow-up of 64 cases has an average length of 5 yrs and 7 mons,the longest being 14 yrs and 6 mons,and the shortest half a year All the 12 with malignant tumors died 20 days.to seven months after the operation.2 with benign tumors died of their recurrence respectiveIy 2 and 2 1/2 yrs after the operation.The remaining patients except one who died of some other disease are surviving,growing and developing well. It is found that older age would see higher incidence of malignancy.Of 29 malignant cases with age records available,25 were over 4 mons old(86.2%).The authors also found that prognosis is closely related to the time of the occurrence of the tumor.If the tumor did not appear until 2 months after birth,it would tend to become malignant.13 out of 19 such cases(s8.4%)proved so.But 159 cases with the tumors appearing within 2 months,only 16 were realignant(10.1%) The authors noted that sacrococcygeal tera toma is always combined with yolk sac tumor which can produce AFP,which makes its level higher than nortonl in affected children.Complete removal of the tumor will bring down AFP level back to normal.But recurrence will raise it again.Therefore,determination of AFP in serum helps much to confirm the diagnosis and predict the prognosis.