Objective: The aim of this paper is to present the cases of 7 young children and young adult with type 2 neurofibromatosis (NF2).

Methods: Seven patients, 5 females and 2 males, aged 2 to 33 years, were studied by intracranial and spinal magnetic resonance (MRI) and clinically. In 5 patients, the symptoms because around the time of the diagnosis while 2 patients, who had no previous symptoms, were diagnosed by MRI after undergoing the test because a parent had been diagnosed of NF2 by MRI.

Results: All 7 patients had bilateral vestibular schwannomas (VS) and only two had no associated intracranial and/or spinal tumors. Four patients had intracranial meningiomas, mainly located in the lesser wing of the temporal fossa and in the falx, and 5 had spinal cord tumors (ependymomas and meningiomas). An attempt to made to remove the VS in all but one case, however, it was not possible to remove completely the tumors in any case. Deafness was the common sequel in all operated cases, associated with permanent bilateral facial paralysis in one and unilateral facial parenthesis in another.

Conclusions: A comparison of our series of NF1 and NF2 cases shows that the ratio of NF2:NF1 in childhood is approximately 1:100, and that the clinical features of NF2 are considerably more severe than in NF1.