抄録
In order to investigate the clinical features and the prognosis of brain tumors in the aged, 132 cases over 60 years of age were studied from the consecutive series of 1, 793 brain tumors in the University of Tokyo Hospital (1963-1979). The incidence of brain tumors in the aged was 7.4% on the whole, while it showed a significant increase from 4.8% (1960's) to 11.5% (the latter half of 1970's).
Histologically, meningiomas were the most common tumors (26%), followed by neurinomas (17%), pituitary adenomas (16%) and metastatic tumors (15%). Malignant gliomas were found more frequently than benign ones. There were more meningiomas as age advanced. The proportion and the number of meningioma cases has obviously increased in recent years when CT scanners became available. Symptoms of intracranial hypertention were found less frequently in aged patients although they were still common in cases of glioblastomas. The duration from onset to surgery was relatively long, especially in cases of neurinomas and pituitary adenomas. Two cases of astrocytomas belonged to the category of silent gliomas. Overall operative mortality rate was 10.6%, while it showed a marked decrease to 4.7% in the 1970's. Five-year survival rates were as follows: meningiomas (58%), pituitary adenomas (70%), neurinomas (80%), glioblastomas (20%) and astrocytomas (25%).
As for functional prognoses, 30% of the patients showed poor states on ADL, mostly because of residual psychic disorders.
