CRANIAL DERMOID AND EPIDERMOID TUMORS

Objectives: to assess the surgical out come of patients with intracranial epidermoid / dermoid tumors. material and methods: this descriptive observational study was conducted in department of neurosurgery, lady reading hospital peshawar from may 2003 to march 2007. patient with radiologically diagnosed epidermoid / dermoid tumors based on ct and mri findings were selected. detailed history and clinical features along with radiological findings were documented. operative and histopathological details were noted. results: a total of 13 patients with dermoid / epidermoid tumor were analyzed. there were 8 males and 5 females with age ranged for 4 to 48 years with mean age of 30.2+13 years. the clinical features like trigeminal neuralgia, dimness of vision and papilloedema were commonly noted. four lesions were supratentorial and 09 were infra-tentorial. in supratentorail tumors, two were in sylvian fissure, one in temporal, and one in lateral ventricular area. among infratentorial, 6 were in cerebello-pontine angle and 3 were in midline fourth ventricular area. histological findings showed epidermoid in 10 and dermoid in 03 cases. postoperative complications noted were csf leakage in 2 (15.4%) cases, seizures and facial palsy in 1 patient (7.7%) each. two patients died during the study period due to post operative complications. conclusion: dermoid / epidermoid are tumors of 2nd and 3rd decade of life, midline are dermoid while laterally located are epidermoid tumors. safe resection is the only treatment option available.