Staging laparotomy in Hodgkin's disease.

A surgeon's experience in staging laparotomy for Hodgkin's disease over an eight-year period is reviewed. The laparotomies concerned were the vast majority of such staging procedures done in this regional centre over this period. A relatively large series of staging operations performed by one surgeon has thus been accumulated and demonstrates the value of experience, and in the light of the allows questioning of the need for some of the steps considered to be basic to staging laparotomy. In the 19 cases reviewed, staging laparotomy altered the method of management in 44%.