Diagnosis and surgical treatment of 35 patients with hemangioblastomas

Objective To analyze the imaging and pathological characteristics, as well as treatment strategies of intracranial hemangioblastomas (HBs),and explore the advancement of diagnosis,etiopathogenisis and treatment of HBs. Methods Thirty-five patients with intracranial HBs,admitted to our hospital and performed tumor resection from January 2005 to January 2010,were chosen in our study; all patients were divided into type of big cystic HBs with a small mural nodule (n=19),type of small cystic HBs with a big nodule (n=9) and type of solid HBs (n=7) by imaging features.The clinical manifestations,imaging findings and surgical methods were retrospectively analyzed; the expressions of NSE and CD34 in these tumor samples were detected by HE staining and immunohistochemical staining.Results All patients were treated by surgery; total resection was achieved in 34 and subtotal resection in 1; no death occurred after the surgery.Twenty-eight patients were followed up for 3 months to 3 years after discharge; recurrence appeared in 1 patient with big cystic HBs with a small mural nodule and Gamma knife treatment was performed.No significant difference was observed in the numbers ofCD34+cells between each 2 types of patients (P＞0.05).The numbers of NSE positive cells between each 2 types were statistically significant (P＜0.05). Conclusion There were no specific clinical manifestations of HBs.Diagnosis was mainly according to imaging features.Treatment of HBs with total resection is just the first selection and the key to reduce palindromia; the formation of HBs cysts is closely related to tumor stromal cells. Key words: Hemangioblastomas;  Microsurgery;  Stromal cell