Surgical Techniques in the Management of Colloid Cysts of the Third Ventricle

Abstract

Dandy was the first to describe the successful removal of a colloid cyst in 1921¹⁰. Initially a variety of open surgical approaches were described mainly through the frontal horn of the lateral ventricle or through the corpus callosum and although these were attended by considerable mortality and morbidity in the past^{12, 13, 23,24, 34}, modern microsurgery has revolutionized the management of these conditions^{1, 27}. The two series reported here by classical neurosurgical techniques, from Zürich and London, indicate that complete excision of these tumours may now be achieved with low mortality and morbidity. Since 1975, an increasing number of reports have described aspiration techniques avoiding craniotomy^{5, 11, 15, 17,29,30,31} and a series from Homburg/Saar is described using these techniques. The ventriculoscope has been employed stereotactically or freehand²⁹ (Calliauw) and a brief description of the modern ventriculoscope is appended from Brussels.