HEADACHE IN BRAIN-TUMOR - A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Headache is one of the cardinal features of intracranial neoplasm. How ever, there is little published information on the prevalence and clin ical profiles of headache in patients with brain tumor. This cross-sec tional study recruited 171 cases of brain tumor. The average age was 3 9 years (range from 4 to 75 years). The female to male ratio was 1.2:1 . The prevalence of headache was 71%. The duration of headache ranged from 3 days to 10 years with an average of 15.7 months. Most prominent headache profiles in this series were intermittent, nocturnal and ear ly morning headache as well as headache upon arising. Most of the pati ents had mild to moderately severe headache. Headache is more common w ith tumors below the tentorium cerebelli. It is more prevalent in prim ary and intracerebral tumor than in metastatic and extracerebral tumor . Headache has lateralizing value, especially in patients with suprate ntorial lesions who have no obvious increased intracranial pressure.