Objective: Our aim is to describe clinical and paraclinical features in patients who underwent stereotactic-guided biopsy for brainstem tumors.
Methods: A study of case series was made by reviewing the records of patients who underwent stereotactic biopsy for brainstem tumors.
Results: Stereotactic biopsy for brainstem tumors was performed (between 2000 and 2008) in 20 children (11 girls, and 9 boys), mean age 7.95 +/- 3.12 years at the time of diagnosis. The mean time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis was 6.59 +/- 13.58 months (0.50-60 months). The most frequent symptoms and signs at onset were related to disturbance of cerebellar function and cranial nerve nuclei. Location was pontomesencephalic (35%), pontine (30%), pontomedullar (25%), and in the whole brainstem (10%). The most common type of image was intrinsic-diffused (55%). The histopathology was anaplastic astrocytoma (30%), followed by fibrillary and pilocytic types (25% each), low-grade astrocytoma (5%), high-grade astrocytoma (5%), and normal tissue (10%). Mild complications were observed in only two cases.
Conclusions: Stereotactic biopsy done for clarifiying a diagnostic imaging in brainstem tumors is important in obtaining a definitive diagnosis with a low rate of complications.