Object: Intracranial germinomas commonly occur in the pineal region, the floor of the third ventricle (hypothalamus), or both, and they are often associated with diabetes insipidus (DI). The authors conducted a study to correlate preoperative DI with the endoscopic and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging evidence of tumor on the third ventricle floor.
Methods: The authors reviewed hospital records, office charts, and MR imaging studies obtained in patients in whom a biopsy sampling procedure was performed with or without endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) at Children's Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama between May 1998 and July 2002. Ten patients with the pathological diagnosis of pure germinoma were identified. Preoperative MR imaging findings and presenting symptoms were correlated with intraoperative neuroendoscopic findings. Seven patients presented with symptomatic hydrocephalus and underwent concomitant ETV. Six patients presented with DI and MR imaging evidence of involvement of the third ventricle floor. Two patients presented with DI and no initial MR imaging evidence of neoplastic involvement of the third ventricle floor; in both there was endoscopic evidence of neoplastic involvement of the floor of the third ventricle. In two children without DI, neither MR imaging nor endoscopic evidence of involvement of the third ventricle floor was observed.
Conclusions: In the authors' experience with intracranial germinoma, endoscopic tumor biopsy sampling, and ETV provide an effective, safe, and minimally invasive means of obtaining diagnostic tissue and treating any concomitant hydrocephalus. The authors found that preoperative DI is an absolute predictor of neoplastic involvement of the hypothalamus regardless of MR imaging findings. Therefore, in the setting of DI and intracranial germinoma without neuroimaging evidence of hypothalamic involvement, germinomatous involvement of the hypothalamus should be assumed present, if not confirmed endoscopically at the time of biopsy sampling or third ventriculostomy, when devising adjuvant treatment plans for such patients.