The risks of craniopharyngioma surgery are infection, bleeding, and adverse reactions to medications and or anesthesia and sometimes but rarely death.
Another specific risk of craniopharyngioma surgery is loss of hormonal production by your pituitary gland or the hypothalamus.
The two basic surgical approaches to treat most craniopharyngiomas are the transcranial and the transnasal routes.
The selected approach is determined by a detailed evaluation of the tumor size and location, the invasion of adjacent structures, and the neurosurgeon's experience.
Most people with craniopharyngioma have surgery to remove all or most of the tumor.
Craniopharyngiomas can sometimes be cured and removed fully although it may also come back and sometimes it's not possible to fully remove the craniopharyngiomas.
Surgeons will remove as much of the craniopharyngiomas as is safe to do so and radiation therapy may also be used after surgery to treat any tumor cells which remain after surgery.
The surgery and radiation used together usually provides better tumor control.
The psychiatric symptoms of craniopharyngiomas are psychosis, catatonia, mania and rapidly progressive dementia.
The symptoms of a craniopharyngioma are.
Headache.
Peripheral field vision loss.
Eye movement weakness/double vision.
Vomiting.
Personality changes, confusion.
Hormonal insufficiency/hypothalamic dysfunction.
Adrenal insufficiency.
Craniopharyngioma is a rare brain tumor which usually form near the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus.
The Craniopharyngiomas are benign (not cancer) and do not spread to other parts of the brain or to other parts of the body.
The symptoms of craniopharyngiomas are.
Headache.
Peripheral field vision loss.
Eye movement weakness/double vision.
Vomiting.
Personality changes, confusion.
Hormonal insufficiency/hypothalamic dysfunction.
Adrenal insufficiency.
Although because of their aggressive local growth and location near delicate structures in the brain, craniopharyngiomas can cause devastating neurological symptoms.
And their propensity to attach to vital glands, brain structures, and blood vessels makes it difficult to remove entire tumors with surgery.
Craniopharyngiomas are most commonly found in children between the ages of 5 and 14.
However, adults over age 50 can also develop these tumors.
Following treatment, patients diagnosed with a craniopharyngioma have 10-year survival rates of approximately 90%.
This means that 90% of patients live at least 10 years.
Apart from those deaths directly attributed to the tumor and those related to the surgical interventions, the risk of cardio-/cerebrovascular and respiratory mortality is increased.