[Meningioma of the clivus]

Clivus meningeoma is a relatively rare tumor with difficult surgical accession. Large and giant tumors acquire a very close relation to the brain stem, cranial nerves and brain vessels. In 10 our of 13 patients, the large tumor diameter exceeded 4 cm, and in half of them it was larger than 5 cm (max. 6.5 cm). Small and medium-sized tumors were removed by means of simple neurosurgical approaches. All of the 10 large and giant tumors were removed by a combined supra-infratentorial presigmoid approach which enabled the approach to the whole tumor. Three recurrent tumors were removed subtotally, the primary surgical intervention removed 5 tumors radically, 4 subtotally and 1 partially. The entire removal was precluded due to infiltrative growth of the tumor localized in the cavernous sinus, firm adherence of tumor to the brain stem or to the vertebrobasillar vessels. Authors' own experience support the data from literature dealing with the relationship of unfavourable results to the size of tumor. Permanent impairment of cranial nerves (38.5%) occurred mostly in large and giant tumors. One death (7.7%) during the peri-operative period (up to one month following operation), as well as the second that occurred in later period succeeded the removal of a giant tumor. Regarding the character of the relationship of large clivus meningeoma to the surrounding nerve and vascular structures, the future improvement of functional results can be expected especially owing to early diagnosis. (Tab. 2, Fig. 2, Ref. 19.)