Optic glioma in neonates--report of two cases

We report two cases of optic glioma in neonates, which is rare and only 3 similar cases can be found in the literature so far. Case #1 was a 55-day-old boy having been lethargic since around his 25th postnatal day. Case #2 was a 100-day-old girl having also been in the same condition as Case #1 since around her 50th postnatal day. The tumor in either patients seemed to have originated from chiasm or its vicinity and were too large to remove totally. Histopathological diagnosis of the tumor was fibrillary astrocytoma grade II in Case #1, and was anaplastic astrocytoma grade III in Case #2, both of which are different from the most popular pilocytic astrocytoma in so called infantile optic glioma. Now, 5 months and 4 years respectively after the operation, mental and somatical developmental retardations are already seen in either patients. Their functional prognosis seems to be poor.