Clinical and laboratory follow up of pediatric craniopharyngioma cases

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and laboratory findings and follow up of endocrine status of pediatric craniopharyngioma cases.MATERIALS and METHODS: The patients diagnosed with craniopharyngioma between January 2010-December 2017 were included in this study. Demographic and clinical findings were retrospectively examined from medical records of Uludag University Medical Faculty Pediatric Endocinology Department. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software version 21.RESULTS: We identified a total of 28 patients with craniopharyngioma during this period. The age of the patients ranged from 60 to 207 months, with a median age of 138.5 months. Fifty-three percent (n=15) of cases were male and forty-seven percent (n=13) of the cases were female. The most common presenting complaints were headache, visual impairment, and short stature in decreasing order. Tumor size was greater than 3 cm in 71% (n: 20) of patients at the time of diagnosis. When the endocrine status of the patients were examined in the preoperative period, it was determined that 17% (n: 5) of the cases had growth hormone deficiency, 14% (n: 4) had hypothyroidism, 10% (n: 3) had cortisol deficiency, and 7.1% (n: 2) had diabetes insipidus. In the postoperative period, panhypopituitarism developed in 89.3% (n: 25) of the cases.CONCLUSIONS: Craniopharyngiomas are slow-growing tumors, the tumor is usually diagnosed late and reaches large sizes. Late diagnosis and large tumor size often lead to more serious endocrine losses. Failure to thrive and progressive weight gain are stimulating findings for early diagnosis of pituitary masses.