Craniopharyngioma – case report and literature review

Abstract

Craniopharyngiomas (Erdheim tumors) are rare tumors with low histological malignancy. Craniopharyngiomas occur at a rate of 0.5 to 2 cases per million people per year, accounting for 30 to 50% of all cases occurring in childhood and adolescence. Craniopharyngioma accounts for 1.2 to 4% of all intracranial tumors in children [1, 2, 3, 4].

Clinical manifestations usually result from increased intracranial pressure, visual disturbances and endocrine disorders. Although long-term survival is high, patients' quality of life is poor, and patients' neuropsychological functions are often impaired. Choosing an appropriate treatment method, is a major challenge and requires the cooperation of physicians from different specialties [5, 6, 7, 8, 9].

Research priorities should be efforts to make information available on cases of Craniopharyngioma, as these tumors are extremely rare. The purpose of this article is to present a case of a boy with a tumor of the periventricular region based on the analysis of medical records and to analyze the current state of knowledge about craniopharyngioma.