Objective: To describe the clinical and ethiologic findings of children with Parinaud's syndrome.
Material and methods: 11 children fulfilling the clinical criteria for Parinaud's syndrome were studied. The mean age was 10 years with a range of 10 months to 14 years.
Results: Seven cases were tumors (pineal germinoma in four and one each with teratoma, astrocytoma, and an undefined tumor); the remaining 4 cases corresponded to arachnoid cyst in the III ventricule, cysticercosis, tuberculoma and multiple sclerosis. The main treatment was surgical including ventriculoperitoneal shunt because of hydrocephalous secondary to mechanical obstruction. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy were also used for the tumor cases, and steroids for the multiple sclerosis patient.
Conclusions: In contrast to adults, Parinaud's syndrome in our children was associated with a mass, mainly tumoral, which interrupted the afferent and efferent connections of the midbrain structures, such as posterior commissure, riMLF or the interstitial nucleus of Cajal.