[Brain tumors and pregnancy].
BACKGROUND
Despite not being a common fact, the occurrence of brain tumors during pregnancy poses a risk to both the mother and infant.


OBJECTIVE
To identify the best medical procedure to be followed for a pregnant patient harboring a brain tumor.


METHODS
The records of 6 patients with brain tumors, diagnosed during pregnancy were examined.


RESULTS
Several types of brain tumors have been associated with pregnancy, but the meningioma is, by far, the most frequent. It seems that pregnancy aggravates the clinical course of intracranial tumors. There were no operative mortality in these series. In 2 patients the labor occurred before the craniotomy and in others, the delivery occurred after the surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
The best moment to recommend the craniotomy and the neurosurgical removal of the tumor will depend of the mothers neurological condition, the tumor histological type as well as the gestational age.
Lynch
José Carlos
JC
Serviço de Neurocirurgia, Hospital dos Servidores do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. cneuroamericas@uol.com.br
Emmerich
João Cláudio
JC
Kislanov
Sara
S
Gouvêa
Fabiano
F
Câmara
Lygia
L
Santos Silva
Sonia Maria
SM
D'Ippolito
Marcos Machado
MM
D000328:Adult; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D003399:Craniotomy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011247:Pregnancy; D011252:Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies