Pediatric intracranial meningiomas--do they differ from their counterparts in adults?

Meningiomas are very rare in children comprising only 0.44.1% of pediatric age tumors and only 1.5-1.8% of all intracranial neoplasms. We analyzed the clinical, pathological and management profile of these rare tumors and elucidated their differences from meningiomas in adults.

From 1990 to 2005, 33 patients belonging to the pediatric age group with intracranial meningiomas were treated in NIMHANS.

There were 19 male and 14 female children. The duration of symptoms ranged from 1 to 60 months. The study had a mean follow-up of 23.4 months. The commonest presenting symptoms were headache (90.9%) and visual disturbances (51.5%). Three patients had associated neurofibromatosis. Calcification was noticed in 22% of the tumors. Intraventricular meningiomas were the commonest (24.2%). Gross total or near total resection was possible in 22 out of 33 patients. Nine patients had reversible postoperative motor deficits. Fibrous meningioma was the commonest histological subtype (24.2%). Five patients had atypical or anaplastic subtypes. Adjuvant radiotherapy was administered in 4 patients. Six patients had recurrences and underwent surgery. Ten patients required either staged procedures or multiple surgeries for the recurrence/residual tumors.

Pediatric meningiomas are rare tumors and differ from those in adults by their male predominance, atypical locations, higher rates of malignant subtypes, recurrence and association with neurofibromatosis. Surgical management is challenging because of atypical location.