MRIs and histopathological studies of five children, aged 3 months to 16 years, with extra-axial meningiomas are reported from the Arkansas Children’s Hospital and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR. Two tumors were supratentorial and three were in the posterior fossa. Two located on the tentorium presented with headache, and one at the foramen magnum caused quadriparesis. All were hyperintense on proton density- and T2-weighted images and showed intense contrast enhancement on T1-weighted images. Two were meningotheliomatous, one transitional, one chordoid, and one hemangiopericytic variant of meningioma. Chromosome 22 deletions were found in two of four tumors studied. [1]
COMMENT. Meningiomas in children are rare (1 to 3% of intracranial tumors) and much less common than in adults (15%). About 25% of meningiomas in children are associated with neurofibromatosis, especially type 2.