[Advances in diagnosis and treatment of oligodendrogliomas of the brain. Eighty-four surgical patients (author's transl)].

The authors report their experience of 84 patients with oligodendroglioma seen over a 34 year period. The low incidence of these brain tumors is underlined. Oligodendroglioma is the most epileptogenic of brain tumors. The clinical picture may resemble "essential" epilepsy. Normal EEG should be considered suspect in confirmed epileptic children and adolescents since oligodendroglioma is the most common of all tumors which induce long-standing epilepsy. Emphasis is put on the importance of computerized tomography and radionuclide scanning for early detection of these tumors. Both procedures are very helpful for deciding on the best operative approach and for determining whether the lesion is malignant or not. The authors advise tumorectomy, which should be as complete as possible, followed by systematic radiotherapy, even if histopathological criteria indicate a benign tumor. With this therapeutic regimen mean survival rates are significantly higher than those published previously.