What is craniopharyngioma resection?

Open craniopharyngioma surgery (craniotomy) involves opening the skull to gain access to the tumor. During minimally invasive craniopharyngioma surgery (transsphenoidal procedure), special surgical tools are inserted through your nose. The tools pass through a natural corridor to the tumor, without affecting the brain.

What is a subtotal resection?

Subtotal resection is the resection where a part of tumor is left. Gross total resection is a complete removal of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) visible tumor tissue. Supratotal resection is performed as gross total resection with excising the MRI visible tumor tissue borders into the unaffected brain tissue.

Can craniopharyngioma grow back?

Sometimes childhood craniopharyngioma comes back after treatment. The tumor may come back in the same area of the brain where it was first found.

How long can you live with craniopharyngioma?

What are the survival rates for craniopharyngioma? In the United States, the craniopharyngioma survival rate 10 years after treatment is 80%. Long-term issues may occur. These may include the need for hormone replacement or problems related to brain damage.

What type of tumor is a craniopharyngioma?

Craniopharyngiomas are benign tumors that grow near the pituitary gland. They can develop as solid tumors or cysts (hollow sacs filled with fluid). Approximately 10 percent to 15 percent of pituitary tumors are craniopharyngiomas.

What is the treatment for craniopharyngioma?

Treatment for craniopharyngioma varies and may involve surgery to remove the tumor, radiation therapy , chemotherapy , biologic therapy, and/or hormone therapy to replace various hormones no longer produced or secreted due to the tumor or its treatment.

What is a total resection?

Gross total resection (GTR) is defined as the removal of all tumors, as gauged by magnetic resonance imaging.

What is near total resection?

Surgical resection of gliomas defined as gross total resection (GTR) (complete resection of the preoperative fluid-attenuated inversion recovery signal abnormality), near total resection (NTR) (<3-mm thin residual fluid-attenuated inversion recovery signal abnormality around the rim of the resection cavity only), or …

Can craniopharyngioma be cured?

A craniopharyngioma is a rare type of benign (not cancerous) brain tumor. These tumors usually form close to the pituitary gland and do not spread to other areas. Doctors usually can remove these tumors with surgery or treat them with high doses of radiation. Most people treated for a craniopharyngioma are cured.

Is there a cure for craniopharyngioma?

Surgery. Surgery is the most common treatment for craniopharyngioma. A neurosurgeon is a doctor who specializes in removing brain tumors, including craniopharyngioma. The goal of surgery is to confirm the diagnosis and remove as much tumor as possible.

How fast does craniopharyngioma grow?

As craniopharyngiomas are in general slowly growing, symptoms may develop gradually – a circumstance which may contribute to the reported delay of 1–2 years between symptom onset and diagnosis (Garnett et al., 2007).

Is craniopharyngioma a rare disease?

Craniopharyngiomas occur in around 0.5 to 2 people per million each year and represent around 1.2 to 4% of all intracranial tumors in children. They mostly develop in two age groups (bimodal incidence peaks): children aged 0 to 14 years and adults aged 50 to 74 years. They occur in men and women equally.

What happens if you have a craniopharyngioma tumor?

Craniopharyngiomas are benign brain tumors arising near the pituitary gland & may cause loss of pituitary hormonal function, visual loss & headaches. The initial optimal treatment for craniopharyngiomas is maximal safe surgical removal.

What is the recurrence rate of craniopharyngioma?

Craniopharyngiomas have a high rate of recurrence, mostly in the first three years after surgery. Overall, recurrence rates range from 0-17% after gross total resection and from 25-63% after subtotal resection with radiotherapy.

What kind of surgery is needed for craniopharyngioma?

In general, the initial approach is to perform surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible. Depending on the size and location of the tumor, patients with craniopharyngioma may be a candidate for minimally invasive skull base surgery.

Is there a safe alternative to TCM for craniopharyngioma resection?

The multidisciplinary EEEA to craniopharyngioma resection represents a safe and compelling alternative to TCM. The authors’ data demonstrate that postoperative visual improvement is statistically more likely in the EEEA despite the increased risk of CSF leakage.