24-year preoperative evolution of a temporal astrocytoma.

We report the case of a patient suffering since 5 months of age from complex focal seizures that could not be controlled with medication and who developed severe psychomotor retardation. When she was 25 years old she was operated on for a left temporal lobe type II astrocytoma which had been detected but misinterpreted on CT scans performed at 12 and 18 years of age. After surgical and radiotherapy treatment the patient was seizure-free for 9 months, but then epilepsy reappeared and the patient died 19 months after surgery. Postsurgical malignant transformation is suspected but not histologically confirmed.