[Pedicled craniopharyngioma of the 3d ventricle]

A 62 year-old man suffered of headache and progressive walking difficulties for 4 years. Radiological examinations showed a calcified intraventricular tumor attached to the floor of the 3rd ventricle. Death, caused by septicemia, occurred before neurosurgery. On sagittal braincut the tumor appeared pediculated and was attached to the anterior part of the floor of the 3rd ventricle. The microscopic features were those of typical craniopharyngioma. The pedicle and the floor of the 3rd ventricule were devoid of tumoral cells. Numerous large vessels which originated in the basal leptomeninges were present in the ventricular floor and the pedicle and then branched out into the tumor. Pathologically proven purely intraventricular craniopharyngiomas have been seldom reported. To our knowledge an autopsy case of pediculated intraventricular craniopharyngioma has been previously described only once, without particular attention to the pedicle. The integrity of the floor of the 3rd ventricle constitutes the only feature that may differentiate with certainty an intraventricular extension of a suprasellar craniopharyngioma from a pure intraventricular form of this tumor.