Chronic dysphagia, vomiting and gastroesophageal reflux as manifestations of a brain stem glioma: a case report.

Brain stem glioma is the third most common childhood brain tumor, comprising 10-15% of this group of neoplasms. Typical presenting symptoms include ataxia, diplopia and headache, while signs of increased intracranial pressure occur later in the clinical course. Although prolonged failure to thrive, characterized by cachexia and vomiting are rare manifestations of brain stem lesions, in this study we report a 9.5-year-old boy with failure to thrive since infancy which remitted after excision of a brain stem astrocytoma.