Surgical outcome in cortical ependymoma: A single centre experience of 18 cases

Cortical ependymomas (CE) are rare subset of supratentorial ependymoma which are located in the peripheral cortical rim without any connection to the ventricular lining. With limited cases previously reported, current knowledge on diagnosis and management of tumors is lacking. We present the largest single center experience on CE reported so far and highlight their clinico-radiological aspects, histopathological features as well the results of their surgical excision. We studied 18 CE patients undergoing surgical excision at our center between September 2009 to November 2017. Clinical, radiological, histopathological and operative data was obtained from hospital records. Functional assessment of our patients were done using the Karnofsky's performance score (KPS). Survival analysis was done using Kaplan-Meier method and log rank test. Mean age of patients in our study group was 19 ± 11.1 years. Frontal lobe was the most frequently involved region. Features of raised intracranial pressure like holocranial headache (n = 15, 83.33%) and vomiting (n = 9, 50%) were most common presenting complaints in our study. Gross total resection of tumor was achieved in eleven patients (61.11%). Histopathology showed equal number (n = 9) of WHO grade 2 and 3 ependymoma. During 111 months follow-up, four patients (22.22%) developed recurrence and three patients (16.66%) died. Five years overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) rate were 74.3% and 70.7%. In view of higher risk of progression to higher histo-pathological grade and local recurrence years after surgical excision, a long clinical and radiological follow-up is advised.