| Whether to Recommend Operation when Benign Brain Tumor was found in Elderly Patients in the Age 70 or Older ? |
|
Min Ho Park , Chang Hyun Kim , Tack Geun Cho , Jae Gon Moon , Ho Kook Lee |
|
Department of Neurosurgery, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea |
| 70세 이상의 고령 환자에서 양성 뇌종양이 발견되었을 때 수술을 권할 것인가 ? |
|
박민호·김창현·조탁근·문재곤·이호국 |
|
한림대학교 의과대학 강남성심병원 신경외과학교실 |
|
|
| Abstract |
Objective
The increase of life expectancy has given the question of recommending the tumor surgery to the elderly patients. This study was done in order to help the surgery decision when the elderly patients were diagnosed with benign brain tumor.
Methods
We observed 21 benign brain tumor patients who were aged over 70, did not have surgery or radiation therapy before, and were able to be observed over 12 months. Their changes in longest diameter and volume of tumor were observed. And 9 surgery patients were analyzed along with a literature review in order to have a clue to the question of benign brain tumor surgery in elderly patients.
Results
The average age of the 21 patients were 74.6 years (range 70-91 years) and the observation period was 49.8 months (range 16-87 months). The longest diameter change was 0.7mm/year (range 0-4.4mm/year) and the volume change was 0.9 cc/year (range -0.1-5.4 cc/year). The clinical results from 9 surgery patients has the result of following; five had no abnormality after the surgery, two died, one had slight dementia and the other had dementia with motor paralysis. The two death cases came to the hospital with severe headache and epilepsy, each with tumor diameter 44mm and 33mm.
Conclusion
For elderly patients, benign brain tumor has tendency to change little in size, therefore there is no reason to perform the surgery if the tumor does not show any neurological symptom that can disturb the daily life of the patient. However, because elderly has higher possibility to have a malignant tumor that shows only minor symptoms, it is necessary to perform regular follow-up. |
| Key Words:
Benign brain neoplasmㆍAged, 70 and overㆍDecision making |
|
PDF Links
Download Citation
