title: Minimally invasive surgery for benign intradural extramedullary spinal meningiomas: experience of a single institution in a cohort of elderly patients and review of the literature.
abstract: Meningiomas of the spine are the most common benign intradural extramedullary lesions and account for 25%-46% of all spinal cord tumors in adults. The goal of treatment is complete surgical resection while preserving spinal stability. Usually, these lesions occur in the thoracic region and in middle-aged women. Clinical presentation is usually nonspecific and the symptoms could precede the diagnosis by several months to years, especially in older people, in whom associated age-related diseases can mask the tumor for a long time. We report a series of 30 patients, aged 70 years or more, harboring intradural extramedullary spinal meningiomas. No subjects had major contraindications to surgery. A minimally invasive approach ( hemilaminectomy and preservation of the outer dural layer) was used to remove the tumor, while preserving spinal stability and improving the watertight dural closure. We retrospectively compared the outcomes in these patients with those in a control group subjected to laminectomy or laminotomy with different dural management. In our experience, the minimally invasive approach allows the same chances of complete tumor removal, while providing a better postoperative course than in a control group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Umberto I General Hospital, Ancona, Italy. mauriziogladi@gmail.com
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iacoangeli
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gladi
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Rienzo
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dobran
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alvaro
authors.forename: Niccolò
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nocchi
authors.forename: Lucia Giovanna
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Maria
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Somma
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Colasanti
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scerrati
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007796:Laminectomy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008579:Meningioma / Q000601:surgery*; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013120:Spinal Cord Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*