The diagnostic efficiency of modern noninvasive methods more and more puts into question the need for exploratory laparotomy to determine the stage of Hodgkin's disease. In 208 patients (122 men and 86 women; mean age 29 [14-62] years) pre- and postoperative findings as to stage of the abdominal disease were compared. All patients had first been examined by ultrasound and computed tomography, followed by laparotomy with splenectomy. Findings of lymphography were available for 171 patients. Gross and microscopic examination of the tissues obtained by splenectomy and lymphadenectomy, as well as liver biopsy provided different stages from the preoperative ones, which in 46 had been false-negative, and in 16 false-positive. Spleen weight and involvement of the spleen with Hodgkin infiltration correlated only weakly with one another. In 38 of 41 patients with parapancreatic and splenohilar lymphnode involvement the spleen was also affected. These results indicate that regarding the stage of Hodgkin's disease, noninvasive methods so far do not achieve the validity of pathological examination obtained at exploratory laparotomy with splenectomy.