[Surgery for intracranial meningiomas in patients older than 80 years].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate surgery for intracranial meningiomas in very elderly patients.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the clinical, radiological and therapeutic data of patients older than 80 years who underwent surgery for symptomatic intracranial meningioma at our institution between May 1998 and February 2005. We estimated operative mortality and morbidity and patients' functional status at 3 months and one year after surgery as well as at their last clinical evaluation.


RESULTS
Eleven patients met these inclusion criteria: 5 men and 6 women, with a mean age of 83 years (range: 81-87 years). There was no perioperative mortality and one patient with perioperative morbidity (hemiplegia). Three months after surgery, the condition of 6 patients had improved, while it had not changed for 4 and had worsened for one. One year after surgery, 5 had improved, 5 were unchanged, and one patient had died. Of the 10 patients alive one year after surgery, 8 had Karnofsky scores> or =80 (self-sufficient). Three patients died more than one year after surgery of causes unrelated to their meningioma.


CONCLUSIONS
Old age does not contraindicate surgery for intracranial meningiomas. Surgery should be proposed for patients older than 80 years with symptomatic intracranial meningioma.
Riffaud
Laurent
L
Service de neurochirurgie, Hôpital Pontchaillou, Rennes (35). laurent.riffaud@chu-rennes.fr
Mazzon
Alejandro
A
Haegelen
Claire
C
Hamlat
Abderrahmane
A
Morandi
Xavier
X
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008577:Meningeal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008579:Meningioma / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome