Intracranial neoplasms during the first year of life

During a 7-year period, from January 1976 to December 1982, 470 brain tumors were treated at the Hospital de Niños Ricardo Gutierrez in Buenos Aires, 40 of which occurred in infants under 1 years of age. Diagnosis was at best tentative because most cases were referred on account of symptoms and nonspecific signs, e.g., macrocephaly, vomiting, and altered behavior. The supratentorial location was predominant over the infratentorial, with a ratio of 4:1. Craniotomies with resection of tumor were performed on all but four infants. Optic chiasm pilocytic astrocytoma, superficial brain astrocytoma, and choroid plexus papilloma were the most common histologic types. Thirty-three infants (80%) were found to have hydrocephalus complicating the brain tumor, but only 15 of them were shunted, because 4 infants died, and in 14, hydrocephalus remitted after the operation. After 2-9 years of postoperative observation, 16 infants (40%) live tumor-free and have normal neurological examinations, 5 (12%) suffer moderate deficits, and 19 (48%) have died.