Surgical outcome of spinal canal meningiomas

We report experiences and clinical outcomes of 61 cases with spinal canal meningiomas from January 1970 through January 2005.

Thirty-eight patients were enrolled with follow-up duration of more than one year after surgery. There were 7 male and 31 female patients. The mean age was 52 years (range, 19 to 80 years). All patients underwent microsurgical resection using a posterior approach.

Twenty-nine (79.4%) cases experienced clinical improvement after surgery. The extent of tumor resection at the first operation was Simpson Grade I in 10 patients, Grade II in 17, Grade III in 4, Grade IV in 6, and unknown in one. We did not experience recurrent cases with Simpson grade I, II, or III resection. There were 6 recurrent cases, consisting of 5 cases with an extent of Simpson grade IV and one with an unknown extent. The mean duration of recurrence was 100 months after surgery. Radiation therapy was administered as a surgical adjunct in four patients (10.5%). Two cases were recurrent lesions that could not be completely resected. The other two cases were malignant meningiomas. No immediate postoperative death occurred in the patient group.

We experienced no recurrent cases of intraspinal meningiomas once gross total resection has been achieved, regardless of the control of the dural origin. Surgeons do not have to take the risk of causing complication to the control dural origin after achieving gross total resectioning of spinal canal meningioma.