Original Article

Epidemiological Evaluation of Intracranial Epidermoid Tumor

Divye Tiwari, Kulwant Singh and Vivek Sharma
World Journal of Surgical Research 2013, 2:12

Abstract

Introduction

Epidermoid tumor are benign slow growing lesions of ectodermal origin that present aproximately 1% of all primary intracranial neoplasm.

Material and Method

This observatioal study was conducted at Department of Neurosurgery,Institute of medical sciences,Banaras Hindu University,Varanasi.The design of study was both prospective and retrospective.In Prospective study newly diagnosed histologically proved patients who attended the out patient department between August 2009 to August 2011 were included.Patients who had radiologically proved but refused to give consent for operation were not included in the study.For retrospective study registered cases between august 2004 to august 2009 from medical records with confirmed radiological diagnosis and histopathological result were included.

Results

Epidermoid constituted 1.7% of total intracranial tumors.The mean age of all patient's were 38.26+_12.87(range24-64 years).The most common location was cerebellopontine angle present in 23(67.64)patients.Headache was most common symptom at the time of presentation.The duration of symptoms range from three months to 14 years with mean of 35 months.Patients who presented with only Trigeminal neuralgia had a mean duration of symptoms of 29.4 months as copmpared to 38.4 months for those who did not have trigeminal neuralgia.

Conclusion

Epidermoid are uncommmon benign intracranial lesions.They have characteristic presentations and specific radiological findings.While gross total resection of epidermoid (radical removal of cyst content and lining wall)is the definative treatment to prevent recurrance and aseptic meningitis but sometimes subtotal resection may be necessary to preserve neurological function.It should be strongly suspected in young patients presenting with features of trigeminal neuralgia not responding to medical therapy, these patients should be investigated radiologically for early detection and better management.

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