The application of evoked potentials in the diagnosis and follow-up of children with intracranial tumors.

Somatosensory and brainstem auditory evoked potentials (SSEPs and BAEPs) provide sensitive measures of the central conduction functions of the auditory and somatosensory input systems at different levels of the central nervous system. The contribution of SSEPs and BAEPs in the primary diagnosis and follow-up of 26 children with infra- and supratentorial tumors were reviewed. The SSEPs, especially the specific complex, showed a latency increase in patients with supratentorial and brainstem mass lesions involving directly or distantly the somatosensory tracts. The BAEPs were sensitive for supratentorial pressure effects and for local and distant posterior fossa tumor effects. In the follow-up of children, evoked potentials offer a good method of detecting tumor recurrence, whereas neuroradiological procedures may be obscured by surgical or radiation artifacts.