Intrinsic brainstem tumors in childhood: surgical indications.
Sixty-six children with intrinsic brainstem gliomas diagnosed between 1980 and 1986 underwent radical surgical resection. Retrospective analysis permitted classification of tumors into four categories: diffuse, focal, cystic and cervicomedullary. All 27 patients with diffuse tumors had malignant neoplasms, were not benefitted by surgery and died within 12-18 months. Five of nine cystic tumors, three of five focal tumors and twenty of twenty-four cervicomedullary tumors had low grade histopathology and are alive one to six years postoperatively. The authors propose a clinical-neuroradiological criteria that accurately predict which patients with brainstem tumors are likely to benefit from radical surgical intervention.
Epstein
F
F
Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, New York University Medical Center, NY 10016.
Wisoff
J H
JH
D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000601:surgery; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D001933:Brain Stem; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed