Browsing by Author "Sudhir, J."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Bilateral thalamic lesions
    (BRITISH JOURNAL OF NEUROSURGERY, 2010)
    Objective. Bilateral thalamic lesions are rare and relatively obscure neoplasms. We present our experience with nine cases of bilateral thalamic lesions and attempt to analyse them in the background of available literature.Materials and methods. Retrospective analyses of the case records of 9 cases of bilateral thalamic lesions treated in our department since January 2002, which have a minimum of 1 year follow-up.Results. The study group included four males and five females with a mean age of 14.6 years (5 years to 29 years). Seven of these patients had radiological evidence of bilateral thalamic lesions at presentation and 2 patients had involvement of the opposite thalamus at a later stage of the disease. All patients except one presented with raised intracranial pressure symptoms. Focal motor deficits (4/9), behavioral and memory disturbances (3/9) were the other major presenting symptoms. Biopsy confirmation was possible in six patients and histopathology was suggestive of low grade fibrillary astrocytoma in all six patients. Seven patients required CSF diversion procedure for associated hydrocephalus. Eight of our nine patients underwent radiotherapy. On last follow-up, 3 patients were clinically stable with images suggestive of arrested disease, four patients had evidence of progressive disease both clinically and radiologically and there were two recorded cases of mortality.Conclusion. Primary bilateral thalamic lesions have characteristic neuroradiological properties and are distinct from unilateral thalamic tumours with bilateral progression. Almost all of these lesions on histology prove to be gliomas but decompressive surgery is seldom feasible. Surgical intervention is limited to biopsy and CSF diversion for hydrocephalus. Bilateral thalamic lesions remain unresponsive to adjuvant therapy and generally carry a poor prognosis.
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    Childhood and adolescent meningiomas: a report of 38 cases and review of literature
    (ACTA NEUROCHIRURGICA, 2009)
    The aim is to study the clinical, radiological and pathological features of childhood and adolescent meningiomas and analyse outcome prognosticators.A retrospective analysis of the case records of patients less than 20 years of age operated for a meningioma in our institute since 1982 was performed. The variables analysed included age, sex, presentation, associated neurofibromatosis (NF), imaging characteristics, extent of resection and histopathology.The study group included 20 males and 18 females with a mean age of 15.53 years. Eleven children (28.9%) had evidence of NF of whom three had NF2 with bilateral vestibular schwannomas. The common presenting symptoms were seizures (76.3%), raised intracranial tension (71%), and focal neurological deficits (39.4%). The location of the operated tumours were as follows: ten skull base (24.4%), ten falx/parasagittal (24.4%), eight spinal (19.5%), five convexity (12.2%), three posterior fossa (7.3%), three intraventricular (7.3%) and two optic nerve sheath (4.9%). Two children (4.9%) had cystic meningiomas. Grade I excision was achieved only in twenty tumours (48.8%). On histopathology, thirty (73.2%) were grade I, nine (21.9%) were grade II and two (4.9%) were grade III meningiomas. Seven tumours recurred of which six were located at the skull base. During the mean follow up period of 4.74 years, the majority, 32 (84.2%) had a good outcome and five (13.2%) had a poor outcome. One child (2.6%) expired due to post-operative sepsis.Childhood meningiomas are uncommon but not rare lesions with a marginal male predominance. Absence of large series with long follow up precludes any definite conclusions on the clinical course and outcome. Uniform observations made in different series including ours, include a higher incidence of the skull base location and tumours with atypical histopathology. Favourable prognostic factors include younger age (< than 10 years), superficial location, total excision and absence of neurofibromatosis. Location and extent of excision appear to be more important than histopathology grade in predicting outcome.
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    Meningiomas of the Lateral Ventricle-A Report of 15 cases
    (BRITISH JOURNAL OF NEUROSURGERY, 2009)
    Lateral ventricular meningiomas are rare tumours that pose considerable surgical challenge. This study attempts to analyse some of the important clinical features of these tumours and review technical considerations in surgery for lateral ventricular meningiomas. A retrospective analysis of the case records of patients with lateral ventricular meningiomas operated in our institute since 1998 with a minimum of one year follow up was done. The variables analysed included age, sex, clinical presentation, imaging characteristics, histopathology and operative details. Outcome was analysed using the Glasgow outcome score (GOS). Fifteen patients with a mean age of 40.6 years formed the study group. A female preponderance was observed (M:F 5:10). Raised intracranial pressure was the predominant symptom at presentation (10/15; 66%) followed by visual field deficits (6/15; 40%) and contralateral motor deficits (5/15; 33.3%). One patient presented with evidence of intratumoural bleed. The tumour was on the right side in 7 patients and on the left side in 8 patients. The lesion was located in the trigone of the lateral ventricle in 13 patients and in the body of the ventricle in two. The tumours were excised through a parietooccipital approach in 11 (73.33%) patients and through a middle temporal gyrus approach in 4 (26.66%).The tumour recurred in 2 patients, both tumours being histologically fibroblastic variants. Fresh operative complications included motor deficits in 3, contralateral homonymous hemianopia in 2, dysphasia in 1, refractory seizures in 2 and loculated hydrocephalus in one. We had no operative mortality. At last follow-up for 10 patients were in GOS 5, two were in GOS 4 and three in GOS 3. Lateral ventricular meningiomas are difficult tumours to operate. Total surgical excision through a superior parietal lobule or middle temporal gyrus approach is possible in most cases with minimal morbidity.