Tumors of the posterior cranial fossa: symptoms, causes, diagnosis and treatment

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Tumor of the posterior cranial fossa - a pathological change in the brain tissue in the cerebellum, 4 ventricles, lateral cistern, medulla oblongata.

It occurs mainly in childhood and, in the presence of some factors, develop into cancer. If education is found in old age, then it is about the formation of metastases.

This tumor grows slowly. More often it is benign. Sometimes a person does not know about it, because only occasionally there is a headache. When a patient turns to doctors, the tumor is already large and leads to the appearance of rough symptoms.

Code for ICD-10: C71 - malignant, D33 - benign. According to the statistics, the tumor of UCW is 70% of intracranial neoplasms in children. With age, their frequency decreases.

The prevalence of the disease is quite large and amounts to 305 cases per 100,000 newborns. In some areas of the country this figure is much higher.

Symptoms of tumors of the posterior cranial fossa

As the formation increases, the symptomatology increases. Appears:

• frequent nausea, causeless vomiting,
• pain in the head that does not pass with pain medication,
• hearing and vision impairment,
• numbness of the face,
• appearance of nerve ticks,
• dizziness, disturbance of the swallowing reflex.

The clinical picture can be different and is caused by the location and presence of compression of surrounding tissues. The clinical course lasts no more than a year.

The lesion of the olfactory nerves is rarely disturbed and is found in the late stages. With tumors, this indicator is not of great importance for diagnosis, since it is local. In conjunction with the remaining signs, there may be a disturbance in the rhythm of the heart, blood pressure decreases.

In the terminal stage of the disease and at the peak of the attack, there is a violation of thermoregulation. The body temperature rises to a mark of 40 degrees. This phenomenon occurs more often in children than in adults.

Causes of pathology

The prerequisites for the appearance of education may be different. More often the problem arises under the influence of radiation and unfavorable external factors. Will affect the formation of can:

• inflammatory processes of the shell of the brain,
• modified nerve fibers,
• mechanical injuries,
• lack of part of the corpus callosum.

All causes are not identified. It is assumed that the role is played by teratogenic factors that affect a woman during pregnancy.

Diagnosis of neoplasms

Survey of patients with signs of tumors should be carefully examined.

To obtain accurate information, use:

• radiography, which allows to determine the presence of signs of bone tissue damage.
• CT - visualizes neoplasms.
• MRI - provides the most complete information about the nature of pathological changes.
• spinal puncture is a manipulation aimed at studying the cerebrospinal fluid. It allows you to fully appreciate the spread of pathology.
• Audiometry is used to study patients who have a neurinoma of the auditory nerve.
• Genetic study.

Sometimes, for a more accurate diagnosis, the cells of the tumor tissue are taken for histological examination. For this purpose, surgical manipulation is performed, which allows a not very traumatic method to take the analysis.

Treatment of tumors of the posterior cranial fossa

The tactics of treatment depend on the histology. Depending on this, it is possible:

• surveillance,
• resection,
• resection with radiation therapy or chemotherapy,
• stereotaxic biopsy,
• therapy without tissue verification.

1. The most effective surgical treatment is considered. Neurosurgeons conduct manipulations using neuronavigation. This makes the procedure as safe as possible. Thanks to microsurgical instruments, all actions are performed accurately.
2. Ionizing radiation is also sometimes effective. Basically, radiation therapy is used before and after surgery. In the first case, with the help of the procedure, the neoplasm is prepared for removal, and in the second method is needed to reduce the likelihood of recurrence of the disease.
3. Not so long ago, radiosurgery began to be used. The method allows you to act exactly on a neoplasm. This is made possible by the precise determination of the coordinates. At the same time, healthy brain tissue remains unaffected. The methodology has shown itself to combat small formations.

The video shows the removal of the meningioma of the posterior cranial fossa: