This week's artwork was donated by Dathan, a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . A technique for renal artery occlusion that involves embolization with gelatin sponge fragments under careful fluoroscopic and interval angiographic monitoring followed by occlusion of the major renal artery with steel coils is described. This syndrome lasts an av of 3 days and is not associated with any permanent side effects. The major risk from infarction is the possibility that embolic material may escape into the systemic circulation and occlude peripheral vessels, resulting in arterial insufficiency, gangrene, or paraplegia. The development of a gas-forming infection within the necrotic tumor mass is also a potential threat.
Renal failure is an infrequent complication.
It is recommended that nephrectomy be performed 1 wk after infarction and that progesterone therapy begin at the end of the first postoperative wk. This response rate exceeded any results obtained with surgery, hormonal therapy, or cytotoxic drug therapy alone or in combination. Survival of these 50 patients was also improved compared to historical controls, although the improvement was not statistically significant. PDQ statements exist for a number of topics. Please consult the PDQ Index .