title: [Brain tumors and pregnancy].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Neurocirurgia, Hospital dos Servidores do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. cneuroamericas@uol.com.br
authors.forename: José Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: João Cláudio
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Emmerich
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kislanov
authors.forename: Fabiano
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gouvêa
authors.forename: Lygia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Câmara
authors.forename: Sonia Maria
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Santos Silva
authors.forename: Marcos Machado
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: D'Ippolito
mesh_terms: 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