Surgical and Functional Outcome after Resection of 57 Tentorial Meningiomas

Tentorial meningiomas (TMs) may challenge the surgeon with their close association to neurovascular structures. We analyzed a consecutive series with regard to surgical and functional outcome following microsurgical resection. We retrospectively reviewed patient charts and imaging data of every patient with a TM resected at a single institution and compared surgical and functional outcomes between groups stratified by choice of approach. 57 consecutive patients from October 2006 to September 2017 were included, of which 75.4% were female; mean age was 60 years (range 31-90), follow-up data was available for 85.4% and reached a mean of 18.3 (range 2-119) months with a median of 14.5 months. 54.4% of TMs were located at the medial compartments of the tentorium, 45.6% at the lateral edges. Complete resection defined as Simpson grades I and II was achieved in 72% of all cases, without statistically significant differences for both subgroups (p = 0.532). 9 patients (15.8%) developed a new cranial nerve palsy postoperatively with the vestibulocochlear nerve affected exclusively in the lateral subgroup (8.8% of total), followed by disturbances of oculomotion (5.4%). After 12 months, 93.0% of patients with available follow-up after 12 months retained fully independent functional status without deficit. Despite providing a surgical challenge due to potentially complicated anatomical relations, the choice of an appropriate surgical strategy overall results in favourable oncological and functional outcome after resection of TMs.