Turkish Neurosurgery 2008 , Vol 18 , Num 1
A Case Report: A Noninfantile Desmoplastic Astrocytoma
Mustafa Onur ULU1, Necmettin TANRIÖVER2, Hüseyin BİÇEROĞLU3, Buge ÖZ4, Bülent CANBAZ5
1Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Department of Neurosurgery, İstanbul, Turkey
2Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Department of Pathology, İstanbul, Turkey
INTRODUCTION and CASE DESCRIPTION: Desmoplastic infantile astrocytomas (DIA) are rare intracranial tumors of infancy with distinctive clinical and radiological features. Despite their radiologically aggressive appearance they tend to follow a benign course with favorable prognosis even after subtotal resections. Non-infantile cases are rarely encountered with only four cases reported before. The authors present a non-infantile DIA in a 4 years old female patient and discuss the clinical features, diagnosis, treatment of this rare entity.

CONCLUSION: Although accepted as a tumor of infancy, DIA can also be encountered in older patients. Careful diagnosis and differentiation of DIA cases with other tumors, particularly malignant astrocytomas is important since the therapeutic strategies may differ. Keywords : Brain tumor, Desmoplastic infantile astrocytoma, MRI, Noninfantile, Pathology, Surgical treatment

Corresponding author : Necmettin Tanrıöver, nctan27@yahoo.com