Partial labyrinthectomy approach for brainstem vascular lesions

Conventional wisdom has typically dictated that the bony labyrinth is an inviolate structure. This notion, however, was successfully challenged following the introduction of the partial labyrinthectomy approach, which was primarily used for the surgical management of cerebellopontine and petrous apex meningiomas. In this article, we discuss an extension of the technique of partial labyrinthectomy in a series of patients that has been used for the treatment of brainstem vascular lesions. We believe that this technique provides superior exposure to the brain stem when compared with conventional retrosigmoid and retrolabyrinthine approaches while reducing the inherent morbidity seen in transotic or petrosectomy approaches.