Surgical approach to pineal tumours

During a period of 10 years (1977-1986) 40 cases of tumour of the pineal region have been treated at the Istituto Neurologico "C. Besta"-of Milan. Out of these 40 cases, 27 (67.5%) were in the paediatric (10-15 years) or juvenile (15-20 years) age at the time of operation. Since 1983 a specific diagnostic and therapeutic protocol has been adopted and thereafter direct surgical removal of the tumour was performed only when the neuroradiological investigations were highly suggestive of a benign extrinsic lesion. Sixteen cases in this series underwent direct surgical removal; in the remaining 24 cases stereotactic biopsy of the tumour was performed in the first instance. On the basis of the histological diagnosis obtained by this procedure surgical excision of the tumour (9 cases) or radiotherapy (15 cases) was then performed. 25 cases underwent surgical removal of the lesion. In all the cases the infratentorial supracerebellar approach as introduced by Krause and then modified by Stein was adopted. On analysis of the data of this series it was observed that in 25% of the cases completely benign resectable tumours were found; in 25% of the cases astrocytoma (grade I-II) which could be treated at least by partial removal were present; in 30% of the cases radiosensitive lesions were encountered. In the remaining 20% of the cases highly malignant tumours were found which should be treated only by radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.