[Morphological characteristics of meningiomas]

Meningiomas are common intracranial neoplasms which originate from the soft meninges, precisely from meningeal arachnoidal cells. The aim of this investigation was to establish the age and sex distribution of the examinees, localization, frequency and histological types of meningiomas.

The investigation was carried out in the period from January 2001 to June 2006. It included 490 consecutive patients of both sexes with diagnosed intracranial tumors and undergoing surgical treatment at the Neurosurgery Clinic of the Clinical Center of Vojvodina. The surgery samples were analyzed in the Laboratory of the Institute of Pathology and Histology of the Clinical Center of Vojvodina. Out of 490 patients with diagnosed intracranial tumors, 137 (27.96%) were diagnosed to have meningiomas.

Meningiomas were more frequent in females (63%) than in males (37%) and they were most common in the 50-59 year age group (37.2%). The most common localization of meningiomas was the frontal region (36.5%). Meningiomas were more common on the left side (44.5%). In regard to other histological types of intracranial tumors, meningiomas were more frequent in females (36.3%). The most common histological type of meningiomas was transitional meningiomas (59.1%). The commonest histological types of meningiomas were benign meningiomas (93.4%). Malignant histological types of meningiomas were more common in males (83.3%), whereas benign histological types were more common in females (64.1%).

A typical patient with meningiomas is a woman 50-59 years old. The tumor is located in the left frontal region. On histology it is benign, transitional type of meningiomas.