Características clínicas y epidemiológicas de niños con tumores del sistema nervioso central en Medellín, Colombia

Introduction: To determine the clinical and epidemiological profile of the pediatric population diagnosed with central nervous system(CNS)tumorstreatedinathird-levelcareinstitutioninMedellín,Colombia,between2010and2015.Methods: Observational, descriptive and retrospective study, which includes the information from clinical records of pediatric patients between 0 and 14 years of age with clinical diagnosis and/or imaging of CNS tumors.The analysis was carried out with the SPSS® program. Results: 85 children with CNS tumors were included; the average age of diagnosis was 5.7 years.The main clinical findings were headach 41.2%, and nausea and/or vomiting 29.4%. 74.1% of the tumors were of primary origin and only 8.2% was secondary to metastasis; the main location was posterior fossa with 22.4%. Conclusion: Despite the fact that the results of this study coincide with what has been described in the literature, it was possible to demonstrate that epidemiological studies with a larger sample are needed, which would make possible to evaluate other variables that allow the characterization of neoplasms of the nervous system in the pediatric population.