[Localization of brain tumors in autopsy. Part I: Tumors of the temporal lobe].

Among the 54946 post-mortem examinations carried out by the Pathological Institute of the Medical Academy of Erfurt in the years 1953 to 1976 with a total of 1491 DNS-tumours (2.7%), the temporal lobe was involved in the following 10 types of tumours: glioblastoma, ependymoma, oligodendroglioma, plexus papilloma, tumour-like gliosis, sarcoma, angioma and angioblastoma, epidermoid tumour, teratoma. Only tumours that had formed in the cerebral tissue proper were evaluated, so that meningiomas and other tumours of the meninges or tumours of the meninges in the middle cranial fossa were left out of consideration. In a total of 949 cases of the above mentioned 10 tumours types, the temporal lobe was involved in 327 (34.5%) cases; these were mainly astrocytomas and glioblastomas (86.5%). Only 63 of the 327 tumours (19.3%) were exclusively located in the temporal lobe. The age peak of the occurrence of temporal lobe tumours was in the 6th decennium. The male showed with 55.4 per cent a slightly greater incidence. CLinically, the left-sided temporal lobe tumours with 79 per cent of the observations were found more frequently than the right-sided ones (67%). Accordingly, left-sided tumours were operated on more frequently (49%) than tumours on the right-hand side (40%).