[Possibilities for error in the diagnosis of craniopharyngiomas]

Age of affection, preferential seat, clinical picture and instrumental diagnosis of craniopharyngiomas are discussed on the basis of 30 observations. Although childhood and adolescence are the leading age groups, there also was a 64-year-old patient. Three courses of the disease were selected: a 6-year-old girl presented both clinically and by instrumental examination indications of a cerebellar tumour; a mandarin-sized arachnoid cyst near the midline was removed. One year later, a suprasellar craniopharyngioma of the size of a chestnut was removed subtotally. Retrospectively, the arachnoid cyst was only seen as a side-finding. A 13-year-old girl showed angiographically and in the pneumoencephalogram signs of a cerebellar tumour located in the middle; the operation showed regular conditions. Only frontal trepanation showed a plum-sized cystic retrochiasmal craniopharyngioma. Similar conditions were found in another 6-year-old girl.