Chaniopharyngioma in Children and Adults

Kim, Dong Won; Park, Sung Min; Lee, Jung Kyo; Yim, Man Bin; Kim, In Hong; Chang, En Sook

Abstract

The authors studied 16 cases of craniopharyngioma who admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery of Dong San Medical center, Keimyung university, during the past 5 years from 1981 to 1985. Of these 16 cases, 9 belonged to a juvenile group with ages under 20 based on full pubertal development, and 7 cases belonged to an adult group. It was observed the difference between the age groups of the clinical, neuroradiogical and histopathopathological findings. Raised ICP symptoms were showed in juvenile group and decreased vision and visual field defect in adult group, respectivelly, as the chief complaint. All cases of the juvenile group were classified as juvenile type and three cases out of seven in the adult group were adult types in their histopathological pattern. Four juvenile types of adult group showed poor outcome. We concluded that subtotal resection with radiotherapy gave a better prognosis in both group and that hormone therapy before and operation decreased mortality and morbidity and improved the quality of survival significantly.