Presentation and outcome of 93 cases of craniopharyngioma.

We studied a series of 93 patients diagnosed with craniopharyngioma during a 15-year period with respect to presenting symptom, clinical course and management. The majority (62%) of patients were men, and had presented with neurological symptoms (75%), with headaches (82%) being the most common presenting symptom. The incidence of certain endocrine and ophthalmic symptoms varied little from that in the literature, on the other hand, the incidence of certain other symptoms did differ markedly from the literature. For example, loss of libido and amenorrhoea were seen at a much lower frequency than that stated in the literature. Hypertension, sensorimotor symptoms and urinary incontinence were not seen at all in our patients. In most cases diagnosis was made by a cranial CT scan, which is more sensitive than plain radiography for detection of enlarged sella turcica (69% vs. 24%; P < 0.001). In over 90% of cases, therapy consisted of removal of a variable portion of the tumour, with or without radiotherapy. Post-operative mortality was substantially reduced in cases treated by radiotherapy (P < 0.05). The most common post-operative complications in all cases were recurrence of disease, panhypopituitarism and diabetes insipidus.