Studies have shown that the diagnosis of an intracranial brain tumor is generally delayed because the signs and symptoms can be non-specific.
Signs and symptoms include headaches, visual disturbance, vomiting, seizures, cranial nerve palsies, ataxia and changes in behavior and school performance.
Brain tumors commonly cause headaches which are often:
- worse first thing in the morning
- are associated with vomiting
- occur during the night and awaken the child
- become increasingly severe and associated with distress
A significant proportion of children with brain tumors will develop progressive neurologic signs and symptoms within a few months.
Differential Diagnosis of an intracranial mass:
Inflammatory |
Infection | Cerebral abscess |
| Parasitic infection - trichinosis | ||
| Traumatic | Injury | Subdural hematoma |
Neoplastic |
Benign | Ganglioglioma |
| Malignant | ||
| Secondary tumor - metastatic from another site |
This Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda website has a great program to study the differential diagnosis of any brain lesion by location:
