Transcondylar Approach to Skull Base Lesions

The author reports the experiences of the transcondylar approaches to five meningiomas in the low clivus and foramen magnum, two aneurysms of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery and one cavernous angioma in the pontomedullary area. The results show that there, was no operative mortality and minimal operative morbidity was noted ; one patient has temporary oropharyngeal dysfunction. The main advantage of this approach of offers the best direct view of the ventral structures to low clivus and foramen magnum without additinal retraction or manipulation of the brain stem.