In my clinic, I found that some patients have already grown very big when they found the tumor, which brings more risks and complications to the surgery and may cost more money to the patients. In fact, most of the intracranial tumors have some “first signs” in the early stage of development, but because people may not have the knowledge of this area and ignore the early “warning”, they miss the time to detect the tumor and treat it in time. Here are some common symptoms of intracranial tumor, hope they will be helpful to you. 1.Progressive headache Don’t be afraid to think that brain tumor is born if you have headache. In fact, it is very common for people to have headache symptoms in their life! Headache can be caused by cold and flu; headache can be caused by poor sleep and stress; headache can also be caused by bad mood. Many brain tumors do not necessarily start with a headache. Headache related to brain tumor is mainly caused by the increase of intracranial pressure, and it will get progressively worse as the tumor grows (or hydrocephalus worsens); while headache caused by other reasons will disappear on its own after the primary cause gets better (such as after recovering from cold). If the headache is accompanied by other symptoms, such as vomiting, loss of vision, poor memory and slow reaction, or one of the following symptoms (2 to 10), intracranial tumors or other occupying lesions are highly suspected. 2.Unilateral tinnitus or hearing loss Unilateral hearing loss is often not easily detected because it does not affect daily life. However, if there is unilateral tinnitus for a longer period of time before the unilateral hearing loss, you should be highly alert! Unilateral tinnitus is the earliest and most common “warning” of an auditory neuroma. If detected early and the tumor is small, it can be treated with gamma knife to avoid the pain of surgery (there are some small auditory neuromas that are followed up for a long time after gamma knife and then operated). Many of the patients with auditory neuroma seen in the clinic have larger tumors, even compressing the brainstem and cerebellum and developing hydrocephalus or ataxia (uncoordinated arms and legs). When I asked them about their medical history, basically, the side where the tumor was growing had early tinnitus, followed by gradual hearing loss and unstable walking before they went to the doctor. Therefore, if there is unilateral tinnitus or hearing loss, you should seek early medical attention. 3. Vision loss or diplopia Some patients with vision loss think it is myopia or presbyopia and ignore the further examination. Some go to ophthalmology and experienced ophthalmologists may think of intracranial problems and do an MRI, which results in intracranial tumor. Some even visit ophthalmology repeatedly and their vision is getting worse and worse, even one eye is blind before they remember to do intracranial examination, by then the tumor is already very big and may encircle the surrounding neurovascular, the risk of surgery is greatly increased and some of them lose the chance of total resection. Which intracranial tumors can affect vision loss? The most common ones are tumors in the saddle area, such as pituitary tumor, craniopharyngioma, meningioma, and less common ones such as cholesteatoma and arachnoid cyst, which can cause bilateral vision loss due to compression of bilateral optic nerves, some are more obvious on one side. Meningiomas of the pterygoid crest tend to affect the optic nerve on one side. Other tumors such as anterior skull base tumors and inferior optic thalamus tumors can also cause vision loss. In addition to ophthalmology, we should also consider excluding intracranial diseases, such as tumors in the occipital lobe or visual conduction pathway near the visual center, the most common being glioma. 4.Decreased sexual function or menstrual disorder/lactation In normal male adults, if there is a decrease in sexual function, some patients do not go to the clinic because of shyness, some go to the male department to see the sex clinic, but the symptoms do not improve until there is a decrease in vision, then they go to the ophthalmology or neurosurgery and take a film to find pituitary tumors or other tumors in the saddle area. Of course, not every pituitary tumor has decreased sexual function. Here, we are talking about prolactinomas, which cause decreased libido and hair loss in men, and menstrual disorders or lactation, or even menopause, in women. When the tumor grows up, it can also compress the optic nerve and cause vision loss. Therefore, if the above sexual problems occur, don’t hesitate to be shy, go to the hospital and be alert to pituitary tumor or other saddle area tumors! 5.Decreased sense of smell or phantom smell Decreased sense of smell is usually hard to detect. If by chance you find decreased sense of smell on one side or both sides, besides going to see a quintuplex, you should highly suspect intracranial lesions involving the olfactory nerve, such as meningioma of the anterior skull base/olfactory groove, olfactoblastoma, or chordoma involving the anterior skull base. If there is no odor around but smells strange (phantom smell), it may be a special manifestation of epilepsy and should be highly alert to tumor in the medial temporal lobe. 6. Memory loss or slow reaction As we age, some of us may experience memory loss or slow reaction, which is also relatively common. However, if there is obvious progressive memory loss or reaction loss in a shorter period of time (such as half a year), or if the above symptoms occur at a young age, attention should be paid to intracranial lesions. Larger frontotemporal or corpus callosum lesions (such as glioma) or chronic increased intracranial pressure (such as various occupying lesions, slowly growing or hydrocephalus) do not necessarily have early and clear localized symptoms or signs, but gradually manifest as memory or reaction slowdown, decreased calculation power (simple addition and subtraction also miscalculated, such as calculating 100-7 equals how much can not be calculated, some can calculate the answer is 93, let him again (some can calculate the answer is 93, and then subtract 7 to calculate how much it equals). The symptoms of these patients are often first noticed by their relatives who are in close contact with them and sent to the doctor, and some of them are misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease! There are many reasons for unstable walking. The most common one related to intracranial occupational lesions is cerebellar tumor, which manifests as unstable walking in a straight line, uncoordinated finger movements, etc. If the above symptoms appear, go to neurosurgery or neurology for consultation in time. 8.Lateral muscle weakness or numbness Unilateral limb weakness or numbness may be caused by lesions involving the intracranial motor function area or sensory function area, or may be caused by spinal cord lesions, and it is recommended to go to neurosurgery or neurology for specialist examination as soon as possible. 9.Secondary epilepsy refers to epilepsy that occurs in adults. If cranial trauma is excluded, most of the epilepsy is caused by intracranial occupancies, such as intracranial tumors/cerebrovascular malformations/parasitic granulomas, etc., which often require surgical treatment. If the above symptoms are found, besides going to the department with the corresponding symptoms (e.g., ophthalmology for vision loss, quintuplegia for poor sense of smell/hearing, etc.), it is recommended to go to neurosurgery or neurology (neurology) for a specialist examination, preferably an MRI plain scan first, and then an enhanced scan if an intracranial occupying lesion is found, so that most intracranial The majority of intracranial lesions can be detected. Some patients may be missed if only CT scan is done, because some lesions cannot be shown on CT scan, especially posterior cranial fossa lesions!