Excision of pediatric craniopharyngioma: pattern of recurrence in 35 patients at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Craniopharyngiomas are benign tumors of central nervous system which are known to affect both adults and children. Despite their benign origin, the recurrence is still one of the main postoperative challenges. The aim of this study was to investigate in retrospect factors related to recurrence of craniopharyngioma in a tertiary center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a review of charts of all craniopharyngioma patients operated in neurosurgery department at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center in Riyadh (KFSH-RC). Age at surgery, gender, body mass index, symptoms at presentation, hormonal data, tumor characteristics and location, presence of hydrocephalus, previous treatments, neuroimaging features, surgical results, and recurrence were abstracted from the medical charts of the patients retrospectively. RESULTS: In all, 70.6% of patients had gross total resection (GTR). The recurrence after GTR in our series was 25% which considered low when compared to most surgical series. From all above studied variables, VP shunt insertion at presentation was constantly significant in both uni- and multi-variable analysis. CONCLUSION: In this study, we analyzed several factors to determine if they had any significant correlation with recurrence. Only VP shunt insertion was found significant. Further researches are needed to verify these factors and to discover others.