Stereotactic Treatment of Colloid Cysts of the Third Ventricle

Abstract

Colloid cysts of the third ventricle represent 0.3%–2.0% of all brain tumors [10]. Despite their rarity, these lesions have fascinated neurosurgeons since the first was removed successfully through a pineal approach by Dandy in 1921 [3]. The interest in colloid cysts developed because of their surgical accessibility, their benign histology, and their occasionally disastrous sequelae when left untreated [4, 16]. However, their clinical behavior frequently is not benign. Although most patients (85%–96%) present with headaches, fluctuating or progressive dementia, seizures also are describe [18]. Even recently, sudden unconsciousness followed by death, possibly secondary to acute hydrocephalus leading to herniation, has been associated with colloid cysts [16].