Türk Nöroşirürji Dergisi 2021 , Vol 31 , Num 1
Pediatric Ependymomas
Ahmet Tolgay AKINCI1,Osman ŞIMŞEK1
1Trakya Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi, Beyin ve Sinir Cerrahisi Anabilim Dalı, Edirne, Türkiye Ependymomas are rare tumours of the central nervous system. In childhood, they are mostly seen intracranially and in the posterior fossa. In magnetic resonance imaging, ependymomas are generally observed as iso-hypointense lesions in T1-weighted sequences, and iso-hyperintense lesions in T2-weighted and FLAIR (fluid-attenuated inversion recovery) sequences, and most of them show heterogeneous staining when gadolinium is administered.

Ependymomas are classified as subependymomas and myxopapillary ependymomas (grade I), "classical" ependymomas (grade II), and anaplastic ependymomas (grade III) by the World Health Organization (WHO) according to their histological and biological features. Ependymomas usually occur sporadically, but they may accompany diseases such as neurofibromatosis type II, Turcot B and MEN1 syndromes.

Surgery followed by radiation therapy is the treatment for most pediatric ependymomas. Chemotherapy can be used in infants to avoid the adverse effects of radiotherapy, in supratentorial lesions, and in high-risk patients. While the overall and progressionfree survival of patients with near-complete excision with surgical intervention is quite good, these rates are considerably lower for patients in whom a near-complete resection cannot be achieved. An attempt is made to treat recurrent cases with repeated surgeries, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy; however, approximately 90% of these WHO grade II and III patients are lost. Anahtar Kelimeler : Childhood brain tumor, Ependymoma, Treatment