History of Management of Supratentorial Tumors of the Lateral and Third Ventricles in Children

Technological Development

• MRI: Provides the most important information for planning surgery. Resources such as fMRI and angiography are important tools for understanding and planning treatment for the disease.
• Intraoperative ultrasonography: Ultrasonography provides real-time information on the location of the lesion.
• Neuronavigation: Helps in the choice of the pathway to the target and in identifying landmarks.
• Neuroendoscope: Important not only for ETV but also for biopsy and even removal of selected supratentorial intraventricular tumors.

Surgical Technique

• Walter Dandy: From 1918 to 1931 Dandy reported on 15 personal cases of benign encapsulated tumors of the lateral ventricles, localized using ventriculography (9). In most cases lobectomy was needed in order to approach and extirpate the lesions. He also described the posterior transcallosal approach for posterior third ventricle lesions and the frontolateral craniotomy to expose the optic chiasm and the pituitary.

W. Dandy:

Ventriculography:

• James Greenwood: In 1949 Greenwood reported on the removal of a colloid cyst of the third ventricle using an anterior transcallosal approach.
• Mahmut Gazi Yasargil: Yasargil started microsurgery in 1967 and created several innovative instruments in addition to equipment such as a self-retaining adjustable retractor, aneurysm clips, and clip appliers (42, 44, 45).
• Albert Rhoton: Our understanding of the microanatomy of the ventricles has been advanced by the large number of publications by Rhoton (33, 34, 41).