Morphological Pattern of Posterior Cranial Fossa Tumors

Abstract

Background:  Posterior cranial fossa tumors are potentially fatal tumors since they can result in brainstem compression. These tumors constitute 54-70% 0f childhood brain tumors and 15-20% of adult brain tumors.

Objective:  To analyze the histological types and to determine the frequency of posterior cranial fossa tumors in children and adults at INMOL hospital Lahore.

Method:  It was a retrospective study in which 62 consecutive cases of posterior cranial fossa tumors were studied from Feb’2008 to Nov’2008. In this period, files of patients presenting with posterior cranial fossa tumors were retrieved from hos-pital record. The data of patients along with histopathological reports were studied.

Results:  Among 62 patients, 43 (69.35%) were male and 38 (61.29%) patients were adult. The morphological distribution of the posterior cranial fossa tumors was as follows: Meningioma – 7 cases (11.2%), Schwannoma – 12 cases (19.3%), Acoustic Neuroma – 20 cases (32.25%), Medulloblastoma – 9 cases (14.5%), Pilocytic Astrocytoma – 2 cases (3.22%), high grade Astrocytoma – 3 cases (4.83%), Metastatic carcinoma – 5 cases (8.06%) and  malignant round blue cell neoplasm – 4 cases (6.45%).

Conclusion:  Acoustic neuroma was the commonest benign tumor and medulloblastoma was found to be the predominant malignant tumor in this study. Medulloblastoma was also seen the commonest posterior cranial fossa tumor in children.

Key Words:  Meningioma, Acoustic Neuroma, Medulloblastoma, Astrocytoma.