Cavitron ultrasonic surgical aspirator and visual evoked potential monitoring for chiasmal gliomas in children. Report of two cases.

The Cavitron ultrasonic surgical aspirator (CUSA) and intraoperative visual evoked potentials (VEP's) were found to be helpful in treating two children with difficult chiasmal gliomas. Approximately 60% of one tumor and 85% of the other was resected without change in the intraoperative VEP's and with no change in postoperative visual fields or acuity. The CUSA-VEP technique is useful in the infant to "buy time" for brain maturation, delaying or obviating subsequent radiotherapy. This approach may be helpful in the older child to reduce the tumor burden for subsequent chemotherapy. Chiasmal gliomas can be subtotally resected with the CUSA while visual function is monitored by intraoperative VEP's.