CRANIOPHARYNGIOMA IN AGED PATIENTS

At Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, in the last fifteen years there have been 4 cases of craniopharyngioma in patients more than 50 years of age. The clinical picture was characterised by organic mental signs and the absence of suprasellar calcification on regular x‐ray examination. Ocular impairment was present in 3 of the 4 cases. In all 4 patients the tumor was located behind the optic chiasm, indicating that perhaps craniopharyngioma in aged patients is a different tumor from craniopharyngioma in young patients in whom it shows several specific characteristics. Air‐contrast studies of the brain ventricles were the preoperative diagnostic method of choice. Confirmation of the diagnosis was made at operation in 3 patients, and at necropsy in the fourth.

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