Neurological and psychophysiological sequelae following different treatments of craniopharyngioma in children.
The authors present neurological findings and data from psychophysiological tests administered during the follow-up period of 35 patients with craniopharyngioma. Group I patients who were treated by irradiation alone or by radiotherapy and conservative surgical procedures (including biopsy, cyst aspiration, and shunting), showed significantly less frontal lobe and visual perceptual dysfunction than Group II patients, in whom radical tumor resection was attempted by a subfrontal exposure. Frontal lobe dysfunction was demonstrated in sorting tests by perseverative responses, inflexibility of behavior, and lack of inhibitory control, while intelligence quotients remained relatively unaffected. Immediate memory defects and decreased manual dexterity were present, to different degrees, in both treatment groups. On the basis of these preliminary data and a maximum follow-up period of 10 years, the authors conclude that primary irradiation of a craniopharyngioma appears associated with a lower morbidity rate and may avoid the frontal lobe disorders seen in the patients with extensive tumor resection.