[Intraoral surgical approach to tumors destroying the axis. Report of three cases]

Primary and metastatic tumours of the axis vertebra are difficult surgical problems. The authors report 3 patients with axis tumours who underwent surgery in 1993 and 1994. Clinical symptoms and signs included pain in three, myelopathy in two, vertebrobasilar circulatory insufficiency and cranial nerve lesions in two patients. Tumours have been resected through transoral and posterior pharyngeal wall approach. The purpose of surgery was decompression of nervous and vascular structures, and histological verification of the tumour. Tumour pathology was diverse and included: multiple myeloma, chordoma and metastatic tumour from stomach. There were no postoperative complications and improvement of neurological conditions was observed.