Acta psicopatológica Acceso abierto

Abstracto

Intracranial Childhood Meningiomas

Osama Elshahawy

Childhood meningiomas are uncommon and their characteristics differ from those commonly found in adults. Over the 7-years period from 1992 to 1998 five cases of histopathologically proven meningiomas are discussed as regards clinical presentation, age and sex, site, size, presence of cysts, histological nature and operative management. There were three males and two females, ages ranging from 7 months to 12 years. All cases presented within seven months of clinical symptomatology. The most common presentation being raised intracranial pressure followed by seizures. Three were located supratentorially and two in the posterior fossa. They all showed bright tumour enhancement and were large (>5 cms in diameter). There were no postradiation or intraventricular tumors in our series. One of our cases revealed the importance of CT scanning in conjunction with MRI in cases where meningioma is suspected and presented valuable preoperative information. It showed a hyerostosing reaction, which MRI failed to demonstrate. There was one case each of meningothelial, transitional, round cell, atypical and vascular meningioma. Where the tumor could not be totally removed along with basal dural attachment recurrence occurred in less than 8 months. One case died due to postoperative pulmonary complications. Two cases received postoperative irradiation