Hypothalamic Tumors Causing Precocious Puberty

ABSTRACT

Various types CNS lesions bring about precocious puberty and mostly these lesions involve the hypothalamus. We experienced two cases of hypothalamic hamartomas and a case of hypothalamic astrocytoma, presenting sexual precocity as the initial symptom. Other clinical findings included gelastic seizure, behavioral disturbance, accelerated bony growth. MRI of the hamartoma showed high signal intensities on T2 weighted spin echo image. The two hypothalamic hamartomas were partially removed and the patients showed some improvements endocrinologically and clinically one month after the operation. Literatures about the hypothalamic hemartoma were reviewed and the problems especially in the extent of surgical removal in the hypothalamic hamartomas were discussed.