Surgery of petroclival meningiomas: report of 24 cases

Twenty-four patients with petroclival meningiomas were operated upon at the neurosurgical clinic of the City Hospital of Hannover between 1978 and 1987. Seventeen were women and seven men; the mean age was 45 years. Symptoms were usually present for more than 2 years before the diagnosis was made. The most common symptom was disturbance of gait; the most common preoperative sign was cranial nerve deficit, mainly of the 7th and 8th nerves. Preoperative neuroradiological evaluation included computed tomography and four-vessel cerebral angiography. Fifteen patients (62%) had a tumor larger than 2.5 cm in its major diameter. The surgical approaches used were the retromastoid, pterional, subtemporal, and combined retromastoid-subtemporal. We developed a modification of the retromastoid-subtemporal approach with preservation of the transverse sinus and used this in the last 2 patients. There was no postoperative death; 11 patients (46%) suffered postoperative complications, mainly in the form of cranial nerve deficits, often reversible. "Total" tumor removal was achieved in 17 patients (71%). Twenty patients (83%) were independent at the time of discharge from the hospital. With accurate neuroradiological evaluation, careful choice of the surgical approach, and sound application of microsurgical techniques, petroclival meningiomas may be "totally" and safely resected in a significant number of patients.