Symptomatic subependymomas of the lateral ventricles. Report of eight cases.

Subependymomas are rare, slow-growing, benign intraventricular tumors, which often are asymptomatic and are discovered incidentally. The review of the literature shows more than 100 symptomatic cases, less than half located in the lateral ventricles. Here we report 8 cases of symptomatic subependymomas of the lateral ventricles, studied by CT and/or MR and treated by direct surgical approach. The suspicion of a subependymoma should arise when a patient older than 10-15 years with long clinical history presents an intraventricular tumor isodense on CT and isointense in T1 and hyperintense in T2 on MR, with scarce or discrete contrast enhancement. Surgical treatment is indicated in symptomatic subependymomas of the lateral ventricles and usually allows complete tumor removal. The prognosis is usually good, also without postoperative irradiation.