"Failure to thrive" due to pontine glioma.

A 14-year-old boy with a five-year history of diencephalic syndrome was found to have a pontine astrocytoma. We review case reports of five similar children with diencephalic syndrome secondary to posterior fossa tumors. We also describe the clinical features, investigative procedures, and therapy of these tumors. These cases emphasize the minimal neurological findings that may be associated with brain stem gliomas and the need for consideration of these tumors in the syndromes of "failure to thrive," anorexia nervosa, and the diencephalic syndrome of infancy.