Epidermoid, Dermoid and Teratomatous Tumors of the Central Nervous System

Pearly Tumours in Relation to the Central Nervous System

“…It may persist for weeks and, except for the absence of micro-organisms, the spinal fluid closely resembles that of acute purulent meningitis. There are numerous reports attesting this fact (Bailey, 1920;Critchley and Ferguson, 1928;Grant and Austin, 1950;Mahoney, 1936;Olivecrona, 1932;Peyton and Baker, 1942). It may remain sterile and subside spontaneously, or it may develop into a bacterial meningitis and, as a matter of fact, cultures taken from pearly tumours at the time of operation occasionally grow pathogenic organisms.…”

“…Histologically, the majority of these are dermoids and, as such, are frequently associated with other congenital anomalies (Logue and Till, 1952;Matson and Ingraham, 1951;Peyton and Baker, 1942).…”

“…They are extremely slow-growing and, depending on their location, may attain a tremendous size before any signs of their presence appear. Occasionally, they become calcified (Peyton and Baker, 1942;Rand and Reeves, 1943). Their incidence ranges between 0 3 and 1 8% in various reported series of tumours of the central nervous system (Findeisen and Tonnis, 1937;King, 1939;Mahoney, 1936;Sachs and Horrax, 1949;Walker and Bucy, 1934).…”

Long-term results of surgical treatment of cerebello-pontine angle epidermoids

“…The slow growth and soft consistency of the tumour enable it to adapt to the neurovascular structures of the cerebello-pontine angle (cpa), and therefore clinical symptoms are slow to arise. The primary surgical objective is to evacuate the cyst content and to remove the non-adherent portions of the capsule 2, 3, 14,22,24,26,28,29,33 We report on a series of 17 patients operated on for removal of a cpa epidermoid cyst, with a mean followup among patients still living of 9 years (range 1 to 20 years).…”

Squamous cell carcinoma developing in an intracranial epidermoid cyst (cholesteatoma)

“…The most common sites of occurrence are in the cerebellopontine angle and in the para-pituitary area but a small number of intracerebral and intraventricular tumours have been recorded (Peyton and Baker, 1942). The cysts contain structureless, waxy, keratinous material and their wall is formed by a thin layer of squamous epithelium in which dermal elements are not present.…”