HAEMANGIOBLASTOMAS : AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF TWO YEARS IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Background: Hemangioblastoma (HB) is a benign, slow-growing, highly vascular tumour of not well defined histological origin. These tumors make up about 1 to 2 percent of all intracranial neoplasms and occur primarily in the posterior fossa. Hemangioblastomas can occur sporadically but in about 20% to 30% cases, it is associated with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease. 9 cases of hemangioblastomas were examined with haematoxylin & eosin (H&E), reticulin stain and immunohistochemistry where ever needed. Their ages ranged from 12 years to 60 years. All of them were as presented as cystic nodules. The main histological differential diagnosis of Haemaniioblastoma is metastatic clear cell carcinoma. Additionally, because of the cystic mural features, pilocytic astrocytomas of the cerebellum must be separated from haemangioblastomas. Materials and Methods: The data for the present study was collected from the record section of the department of Pathology of our hospital. Histomorphological and immunohistochemical evaluation of all the cases of hemangioblastomas was done. Results: In the present study we had 9 cases with 2 of them being recurrent in nature. Age range was 12 to 60 yrs (median: 32 yrs) with Male to Female ratio of 2: 1 (M-6; F-3). Cerebellum was commonest location followed by brain stem. Conclusion: Hemangioblastomas can occur in throughout the neuroaxis. Cerebellum is the commonest site of occurrence for Haemangioblastoms.