[Meningiomas of the optic nerve (clinical picture, diagnosis and morphology)]

The clinical, diagnostic, and morphological findings in 31 patients with meningiomas of the optic nerve are analysed. Three groups of patients, each with a definite type of image on computed tomography, are distinguished. It is shown that the difficulty of preoperative identification of intracanalicular and intracranial spreading of a meningioma of the optic nerve determines the expediency of a transcranial approach with resection of the roof of the orbit for examination of the optic nerve for its whole distance from the posterior pole of the eyeball to the chiasm.