[Surgical treatment of primary intracerebral neoplasms only presenting with epilepsy]

To analyse the histopathology and the factors influencing the outcome of surgical treatment of primary intracerebral neoplasms only presenting with epilepsy.

55 patients with primary intracerebral tumors presenting with epilepsy without other neurologic signs were retrospectively reviewed.

54(98.2%) cases were histologically diagnosed as gliomas among which 42(76.4%) were low-grade and 12(21.8%) high-grade. The incidence of complications for tumor removals was 32.7%. Of the 41 patients who had postoperative follow-up more than 6 months after operation, 20(48.8%) were seizure-free, 3 were rare, 4 were improved, and 14 (34.1%) had no appreciable reduction in seizure frequency. The position of the tumors was significantly correlated with the incidence of postoperative complications and the postoperative seizure control (P < 0.05). The incidence of postoperative complications for frontal and parietal tumors was higher than that for temporal tumors, while the temporal tumors had better postoperative seizure control than the frontal and the parietal ones.

Most of the primary intracerebral tumors only presenting with epilepsy were low-grade gliomas. The position of tumors was an important factor influencing the extent of surgical removal and the postoperative seizure control.