Surgical treatment of intracavernous trigeminal schwannomas via a fronto-temporal epidural approach.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the fronto-temporal epidural approach in managing intracavernous trigeminal schwannomas. Five unselected patients harboring an intracavernous trigeminal schwannoma were operated on. Each of them was cured by a single craniotomy. In all cases the skull base approach described by Dolenc [Acta Neurochir. (Wien) 130 (1994) 55] was performed. The complete resection of the tumor and its capsule was gained in all five cases. There was no surgical mortality. No patient developed postoperative major complications. The fronto-temporal epidural approach can be applied for parasellar type trigeminal schwannomas, thus avoiding the exposure of the temporal lobe, and resulting in good chance for total excision of the tumor together with minimal surgical complications.
Department of Neurosurgery, Federico II University School of Medicine, 5 Via S. Pansini, Naples 80131, Italy. guimarin@unina.it
Giuseppe
G
Mariniello
Paolo
P
Cappabianca
Simona
S
Buonamassa
Enrico
E
de Divitiis
D002426:Cavernous Sinus / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D003390:Cranial Nerve Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D003399:Craniotomy / Q000379:methods*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008866:Microsurgery; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014276:Trigeminal Nerve / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D020433:Trigeminal Nerve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*