Childhood Brain Tumor
Brain tumors are often diagnosed in the children all over the world. Childhood brain tumors can be benign or malignant. Brain tumors exist in the brain cells that later can cause serious damages to the brain. Brain tumors in children have different symptoms depending on their size and location. Pediatric specialists use radiation therapy, neurosurgery, medical oncology and psychological treatments for treating the brain tumor in children.
Symptoms of Childhood Brain Tumors
- Headaches:Headaches can be very common in childhood brain tumors. Hence, chronic headaches should always be taken seriously to avoid the any serious damage of brain due to the tumors. These headaches disturb the children's sleep, and this makes the children restless for a long time. Children suffer from the great pains of headaches when these headaches accompanied with coughing and sneezing.
- Cognitive Decline: Brain tumors can cause some psychological illness. The children with brain tumor may have problems in concentrating, and they may take long time to complete an assigned work compared to normal child. These symptoms can be mostly found in the children in school age. The brain functions slow down due to the cancerous cells that attack other healthy tissues in the brain and nervous system. Children can experience these symptoms slowly or suddenly in some cases. Hence, parents should take the help of pediatrician immediately whenever they find any of the above symptoms.
- Seizures: Seizures are also related to other illness. Most of the children with brain tumors suffer from the seizures. These seizures can causes jerks and loss of consciousness.
- Physical changes: There are some physical effects of brain tumors in children. Children experience weakness and loss of control over the actions. Sometimes the child reacts randomly to specific situation.
Diagnosis of Childhood Brain Tumors
However, brain tumor's diagnosis is similar to al age groups, but children show symptoms more severe than adults. Doctors can perform some neurological exams and imaging tests that to locate the exact place of the tumor in the brain. Diagnosing the childhood brain tumor includes Computerize tomography scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Bone scan and spinal tap. These are the most common techniques in diagnosing the brain tumors in children.
Treatment for Childhood Brain Tumor
Children with brain tumors are treated as per the type of the tumor and other related factors. These factors are:
- The children's medical history and health
- The Tumor: type, size and location
- The spread of the tumor
- Child's reactions towards the medical treatment
Most of the brain tumors in the children are diagnosed as the primary tumors. Generally, these types of the tumors don't spread to the other parts apart from the brain. Sometimes these types of tumors can cause risk to the lives of the children by affecting the blood circulation and breathing system. Hence, brain tumor in children should be treated carefully, as it is considered as the second most common factor causing deaths in children world wide.
