Pediatric neurosurgery
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Pediatric neurosurgery · Aug 2010
Comparative StudyRhesus macaque as an animal model for posterior fossa syndrome following tumor resection.
Posterior fossa tumors are the most common brain tumors in children. Surgeons usually remove these tumors via a midline incision through the posterior vermis of the cerebellum. Though often effective, this surgery causes hypotonia, ataxia, oculomotor deficits, transient mutism, difficulty in swallowing and nausea. To date, there is no animal model that mimics these complications. We found that the rhesus macaque is a good model for the consequences of this surgery. ⋯ Our surgery in a monkey caused the same postsurgical signs observed in humans. We expect to use this model to improve the posterior fossa surgery methods.