Foreword and history of surgery in the third ventricle

In this annual report of the Societe de Neurochirurgie de Langue Francaise the authors reviewed in a retrospective study 262 cases of tumors exclusive ly located in the third ventricle (thalamic, chiasmatic and pineal tumors w ere excluded). Modern neuroradiology easily discloses these lesions, and th erapeutic management represents the main challenge: most of the patients pr esent with few symptoms, and even in some cases the lesions are diagnosed f ortuitously. Neuropsychological assessment appears necessary to evaluate th e long-term outcome of the patients. unfortunately few cases in this series were informative for these data. Waiter Dandy described the operative appr oach of these tumors in 1922, and he also reported the benefits of endoscop y. Almost 80 years later technical advances such as CSF shunts, stereotaxis , neuronavigation have improved the results of the neurosurgical treatment of these deep-seated lesions.