TUMORS OF THE LATERAL VENTRICLE - A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW OF 112 CASESOPERATED UPON 1970-1997

Between the years 1970 and 1997, 112 patients with tumors of the later al ventricle were operated on at the University of Ankara. School of M edicine, Department of Neurosurgery. Seventy-one patients (63.4 %) wer e male and 41 patients (36.6 %) female. Headache (35.7 %), nausea and vomiting (22.3 %) were the most common presenting complaints. Papilloe dema (42.9 %), motor and sensory loss (25 %) were the most common find ings at neurological examination. Complete tumor removal was accomplis hed in 38.4 % of the patients. Histopathologically the most commonly s een types of the tumor were ependymoma (25 %) and astrocytoma (21.4 %) . Among the various approach, the anterior transcortical (53.6 %) and the posterior transcortical (16 %) were the most commonly used. Eleven patients were reoperated for tumor recurrence. After surgery, radiati on therapy was also performed on fourty-two patients. The morbidity an d mortality rates were considerably higher before 1976 when the use of microneurosurgical techniques was introduced. After this, our morbidi ty and mortality rates decreased dramatically The overall surgical mor tality rate was 7.1 % before 1976; during the last 10 years (n:46), it was 6.5 %. In this report, our choice of operative approaches and the results will be discussed.