418 Contribution of Interventional Radiology in Pediatrics

Background and aims: Interventional radiology is established as a diagnostic and therapeutic method in adults. Since lately it's use in children was limited due to lack of clinical experience. The aim is to detect the effectiveness and safety of invasive radiology as a method of diagnosis and treatment in pediatric patients. Methods: A total of 138 children underwent a CT guided invasive procedure during the last 3 years. Their age ranged from 3-14 years with a mean age of 8 years. Most of our diagnostic cases referred to liver, kidney, lung, mediastinum and bone percutaneous biopsies (82 patients) and diagnostic drainages. Therapeutic approaches referred to drainage of abscesses or fluid collections (32 patients), radiofrequency ablation of osteoid osteomas (17 patients), radiofrequency ablation of liver (4 patients) and lung (3 patients) malignancies. All procedures were performed under sedation. Depending on the kind of interventional procedure, the age and the figure of each patient different material was used. Biopsies were performed with needles 18G and cutting trocar system 14G with a needle of 18G, drainages with drainage catheters trocar, pigtail 7 or 8F, and RFAs with spiral electrodes. Results: Adequate diagnostic cytologic material was obtained in 90.2% of the diagnostic procedures. Therapeutic procedures were successful in 96% of our patients. None major complication was obtained in our patients. Conclusions: Interventional radiology is a minimal invasive, simple, effective and safe method of diagnosis and treatment for children with no major complications. It results in low morbidity and short term hospitalization of pediatric patients.