Diagnosis And Treatment Of Brainstem Angioreticulomas

Objective To investigate the diagnosis and treatment of the brainstem angioreticuloma(b-ARM).Methods The data of 12 patients with b-ARM verified by surgery and pathology were analyzed retrospectively.Results 12 patients with b-ARM were identified, accounting for 11.4% of all intracranial angioreticulomas surgically treated from April 1995 to April 2004 in Renmin hospital of Wuhan university. There were 7 males and 5 females. The age of patients ranged from 5 to 62 years old with mean of 31.4 years old. The clinical manifestations were of non-special. MRI is the major diagnostic modality. Total tumor removal was achieved in all the case. 2 patients died after operation. Follow-up study (mean of 36.4 months) was available in all the 10 patients, 7 of them had normal study and life; 2 patients can live without help; 1 was dead because of another disease.Conclusions brainstem angioreticuloma is a rare disease. In most cases the tumor located on oblongata and most of tumors were solid. MRI & DSA are major preoperatively diagnositic modalities for b-ARM. b-ARM are still challenging neoplasm. The application of special microsurgical technique and improvement of operative manipulation can improve the surgical efficacy.