Epidemiology of pediatric intramedullary spinal cord tumors.

UNLABELLED: Intramedullary spinal cord tumors (IMSCTs) are a rare neurosurgical disease. There are a lot of controversies in their epidemiology. Most references were published in the 80-90ss. The authors describe and analyze the largest contemporary clinical series of IMSCTs treated by one surgeon (YK).

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

201 patients (aged 2 months - 18 years) with IMSCT operated on during the past 12 years.

RESULTS

A slight predominance of male patients was discovered. Astrocytomas account for 74% of all pediatric IMSCTs. Classic ependymomas are rare (5,5%). Pediatric spinal cord hemangioblastomas (HABs) are highly suspicious for von Hippel-Lindau disease.

CONCLUSION

Benign histological variants of astrocytomas are the most common type of pediatric IMCTs. No gender or age differences in the incidence of most tumors (except for HABs) have been observed. Patients with intramedullary HAB should be routinely screened for von Hippel-Lindau disease. There are still a lot of uncertainties in the published data on epidemiology of IMSCTs.