Assessment of Cognition, Behavior, and Quality of Life: Pre and Postoperative for Children with Supratentorial Low-Grade Astrocytoma

objectives: The high survival rate of patients with low-grade astrocytoma necessitates increasing attention to cognitive and psychological outcomes. The objective of the current study is to investigate cognitive, emotional, behavioral and quality of life outcomes among children who were treated for supratentorial low-grade astrocytoma. Methods: This study included 15 children having supratentorial low grade astrocytoma operated upon at Mansoura University Hospital, Egypt between 2011 and 2013 with a postoperative follow up for six months. Psychiatric assessment was done through KIDSCID, IQ was evaluated through Stanford Binet Test - version 5 and emotional and behavioral assessments were done using Achenbach s Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Quality of life was evaluated for both children and their parents using the PedsQL. Results: No remarkable postoperative changes in IQ scores compared to the pre-operative ones. There were no statistically significant differences between the pre-operative and post-operative scores on the CBCL. The parents scores on pedsQL were lower than the children s scores. Conclusion: Subtotal resection of low grade astrocytoma will not affect cognition, behavior or quality of life.