Oligodendrogliomas en el Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía: comportamiento biológico en una población definida

oligodendrogliomas represent 2 to 5% of the intracraneal tumors. usually these tumors are diagnosed between the 4th and the 5th decades of life. the most commonly site is the frontal lobe. surgery is the milestone of the treatment approach. material and methods: between january 1990 and january 2000, 28 patients had a diagnosis of oligodendroglioma. we looked for localization, signs and symtoms of presentation, peroperative diagnosis, histopathology, type of treatment received and complications. results: the most frecuent site was the frontal lobe (43%), while the main symptom of presentation were seizures (61%). the preoperative diagnosis with clinical data and imaging was low-grade glioma in 39% of the cases. partial resection was performed in 36% of the cases being the most prevalent of all treatments. the surgery was performed by neurosurgeons in half the cases and by residents of the last year in the other half. seventy one porcent of patients were treated with radiotherapy, and 21% with chemotherapy. the hystopathologic diagnosis was oligodendroglioma in 71% and anaplastic oligodendroglioma in 29%. the operative mortality was 8%. conclusion: our results are similar to the ones described