Prolonged cerebral salt wasting syndrome associated with the intraventricular dissemination of brain tumors - Report of two cases and review of the literature

Hyponatremia is a frequent event in neurosurgery practice and is usually as sociated with subarachnoid hemorrhage, head trauma, infections and neoplasm s. The two common clinical manifestations are the inappropriate secretion o f antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) and the cerebral salt wasting syndrome (CSWS ), which were usually attributed to each other due to identical clinical pr esentation. In contrast to the better-recognized SIADH, there has not been a uniform consensus over the humoral and neural mechanisms of CSWS and func tional aspects of renal response. in this article, we report on 2 cases of a primitive neuroectodermal tumor with prolonged CSWS manifested during the intraventricular dissemination of primary disease and the high catabolic s tage. Copyright (C) 2000 S.Kaiger AG,Basel.