Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy is the Treatment of Choice for Obstructive Hydrocephalus Due to Pediatric Pineal Tumors

Pineal lesions in the pediatric patient are often complicated by the development of hydrocephalus due to obstruction of the aqueduct or the third ventricle by tumor masses. In such cases, hydrocephalus treatment has the highest priority and should be performed prior to any surgical treatment of the pineal tumor itself. The golden standard in obstructive hydrocephalus treatment remains placement of a temporary or permanent cerebrospinal fluid shunt, although there are many long-term complications associated with a shunt system. To avoid these and to render the patients independent from a failure-prone shunt system, we employed endoscopic third ventriculostomy for permanent relief of elevated intracranial pressure prior to surgical removal of the pineal lesions. The present study summarizes the results of this approach in 7 pediatric patients with obstructive hydrocephalus. No complications of the endoscopic procedure were encountered, and the ventriculostomy remained patent in all cases, as confirmed by motion sensitive MRI. The advantages of endoscopic third ventriculostomy as compared with other techniques are discussed, and its increasing role in the management of children with space occupying lesions of the pineal region is defined.