title: Surgical treatment of petroclival meningiomas: experience with 16 cases.
abstract: This article presents the surgical results in a series of 16 petroclival meningiomas operated on from 1984-1990. Tumors with marked infiltration of the cavernous sinus, which belong to the category of spheno-petro-clival meningiomas, were excluded. The 16 petroclival meningiomas were all surgically treated using the combined transmastoid temporosuboccipital approach that offers a number of possible variants: retrosigmoidal, with or without recision of the sinus; presigmoidal retro-, or translabyrinthine. The choice of one or another of these variants depends on certain clinical (preoperative hearing status) and anatomic (size and extension, central or lateral, of the tumor; patency of the transverse sinuses; size and position, more or less anterior, of the sigmoid sinus; position, more or less high, of the jugular bulb) factors. The principle indications for each of these approaches are given with particular emphasis on their relative advantages and limitations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences-Neurosurgery, La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cantore
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Delfini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ciappetta
mesh_terms: D003388:Cranial Fossa, Posterior; D006801:Humans; D008577:Meningeal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008579:Meningioma / Q000601:surgery*; D010579:Petrous Bone; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome