Suboccipital Retrosigmoid Approach for Surgical Treatment of Cerebellopontine Angle Meningiomas

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics,operative approach and microsurgical technique on surgical intervention of cerebellopontine angle meningiomas. Methods Forty-nine cases of cerebellopontine angle meningiomas,admitted from January 2010 to November 2013,were analyzed retrospectively. All cases were treated by deploying microsurgical techniques via suboccipital retrosigmoid approach. Results In the series of the patients,tumors were achieved Simpson grade Ⅰ excision in 25 cases( 51.0%),Simpson grade Ⅱ in 17 cases( 34.7%) and subtotal in 7 cases( 14.3%) without surgical mortality. Forty-seven patients were followed up for 6 months to 4 years with an average of 2. 4 years. During the follow-up period,37 patients resumed work and normal life,7 patients obtained self-care capability and 3 patients needed to be taken care of. Facial nerve and auditory nerve function were preserved in 42 cases( 89. 4%) and in 24 cases( 51. 1%) respectively in 6 months follow-up. Conclusions Suboccipital retrosigmoid approach is appropriate for resection of cerebellopontine angel meningiomas. Under intra-operative neurophysiological monitoring,ideal therapeutic efficacy and low disability rate could be obtained while applying microsurgical techniques to resects cerebellopontine angel meningiomas with elaborate micro-neurosurgical skills.