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Surgical management of pineal region tumors

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Summary

The authors advocate an aggressive surgical approach to pineal region tumors to provide a definitive histological diagnosis and to facilitate extensive tumor removal. This strategy is based on their surgical experience in 160 operations for pineal region tumors in which operative mortality was 4% with 3% permanent major morbidity. One-third of pineal tumors were benign for which surgery alone was usually curative. A gross total removal was possible in 31 of 107 malignant tumors. The supracerebellar infratentorial approach was preferred in 86% of patients.

The tumors displayed considerable histological diversity with germ cell tumors most common (37%), followd by glial cell tumors (28%) and pineal cell tumors (23%). Mixed tumors occurred 15% of the time. Spinal metastases were rare, occurring in less than 10% of patients with malignant tumors.

These results with a large series of pineal region tumors demonstrate the safety and efficacy of aggressive pineal tumor surgery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, New York Neurological Institute, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, USA

    J. N. Bruce & B. M. Stein

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  1. J. N. Bruce
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  2. B. M. Stein
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Bruce, J.N., Stein, B.M. Surgical management of pineal region tumors. Acta neurochir 134, 130–135 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01417679

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