Article Text
Abstract
Brainstem gliomas are rare tumours in adults, accounting for only 1%–2% of all intracranial gliomas. They are recognised as a heterogeneous group, in which most are malignant tumours. Brainstem gliomas are classified into four major groups according to the growth pattern on imaging, namely diffuse, focal, exophytic and cervicomedullary. Such a classification system is also useful for surgical decision making. The exophytic variant is extremely rare having anecdoctal reports in the literature. We report the case of an adult patient affected by an exophytic glioblastoma of the pons, which was submitted to subtotal resection followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy with a longer overall survival. To the best of our knowledge, this is the seventh adult patient reported of an exophytic brainstem glioblastoma.
- brain stem / cerebellum
- neurosurgery
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Footnotes
Contributors MAN: drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content. FFB: substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data. SBC: agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. MAA: final approval of the version published.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Patient consent for publication Next of kin consent obtained.