Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor in children

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical features,diagnosis and surgical management of dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors(DNT) in children.Methods The clinical presentation,imaging features and pathological characteristics were analyzed retrospectively in 13 cases of dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors in children.Results Patients presented with intractable partial seizures.On MRI,all lesions were located in cortical and subcortical white matter and showed a hypointense mass in T1-weight images,hyperintense in T2-weighted with well delineated boundary.And there were neither edema nor mass effect.Specific glioneuronal element was typical manifestation in pathological examination.All the patients underwent microsurgical operation.Among them total resection was performed in 10 patients,subtotal resection in 3 patients.Epilepsy was well controlled after the operationx except for two patients who developed epileptic seizure one year after operation.One had tonic seizures after total resection and one had absence epilepsy after subtotal resection.These two patients presented with similar clinical picture pre-operatively.The seizure frequency decreased post-operatively (more than 75% declined).Conclusions Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors is a benign tumor and the microsurgery is curative.The correct diagnosis is important in the treatment of DNT. Key words: Neuroepithelioma; Diagnosis; Microsurgery