Clinical course and surgical results in supratentorial low-grade gliomas

From 1968-1985 505 supratentorial primary brain tumors were operated on in Department of Neurosurgery of Medical Academy of Lódź, 49 of them (9%) were low-grade gliomas. Basing on WHO classification we found 29 fibrillary, 14 protoplasmatic, 1 pilocytic astrocytomas and 5 oligodendrogliomas. There were 19 men and 30 women. 70% of patients were 21-50 years old, and there were 5 children aged from 4 to 15 years. The initial symptoms were headache and epilepsy which occurred in 70% of astrocytomas and in all 5 cases of oligodendrogliomas. Only 2 patients presented symptoms of intracranial hypertension. The history of illness was shorter than 1 month in 10 patients (20%) and longer than 2 years in 20 (40%). 29 tumors were lobar with basal ganglia infiltration, 4 were located in central part of the brain and 16 were strictly lobar. These 16 tumors were removed totally and from 14 patients who survived operation 3 died of recurrence 3-5 years after surgery, but all the others are still alive, 7 of them longer than 5 years. In 19 cases tumor was removed partially, 4 patients died in postoperative period, 8 of recurrence 8 months to 4 years after surgery, but 7 is still alive, 4 longer than 5 years. In 14 cases only biopsy was performed, 7 patients died in first 12 months, 2 on the second and 1 one the fourth year after biopsy. 4 patients is alive longer than 1 year.