[Spinal meningioma surgery after 75 years of age]

Spinal meningioma surgery is usually not difficult and is commonly associated with good outcome. However, advanced age and severe neurological deficit have been considered to be predictors of poor surgical outcome. Therefore, we attempted to assess the surgical outcome of spinal meningiomas in the elderly and to analyze the role of outcome predictors.

From 1990 to 2006, 32 patients 76 years or older with spinal meningiomas were operated on in our Neurosurgery Departments. All patients had MRI. Neurological status was assessed using the Solero score. Neurological evaluations were conducted three months and one year after surgery. The mean follow-up was 36 months. A multiple logistic regression was applied to establish the relationship between the risk factors and outcome.

The median age was 79.3 years. The mean duration of symptoms until surgery was 12.7 months. One patient was rated Solero grade I, 11 grade II, 17 grade III and three patients were rated grade IV. Radical tumor removal was performed in 30 patients (94%). All meningiomas were benign. There was no recurrence, morbidity was 9%, and 1-year mortality was 0%. One year after surgery, all patients had improved, 56 % had recovered completely. Among 20 patients with severe paraparesis or paraplegia, 30 % had recovered completely. There was no statistical correlation between outcome and various risk factors: age, gender, ASA, tumor size, quality of tumor removal, and location. Only preoperative Solero score and duration of symptoms before surgery were statistically significant.

Surgery is the only treatment of symptomatic spinal meningioma. Advanced age did not seem to contraindicate surgery, even in those with severe preoperative neurological deficits, because quality of life can be improved in the vast majority of cases. There was a correlation between duration and severity of deficit and outcome.