Surgical approaches to petroclival meningiomas: a narrative review

Abstract

The surgical ressection of petroclival meningiomas is challenging due to its deep location and relationship with vital neurovascular structures. Usually they are benign injuries, but they can involve or infiltrate skull base bones, dura mater and brainstem. This makes the total removing very difficult or impossible without causing neurological deficits. The objective of this study is to review the surgical approaches used on the treatment of petroclival meningiomas and the knowledge which we achieved upon the surgical management of 30 cases. Material and method- Series of 30 petroclival meningioma-cases. In the beginning of our series we used petrous approach for all the cases, however, with the acquiring of experience, we are indicating the retrosigmoid approach, leaving the petrous and skull-orbito-zigomatics approaches for selected cases.

Discussion- Owing to the difficulty of the access, the petroclival meningiomas usually require different surgical approaches and have distint surgical difficulties. There are three main approaches: fronto-orbito-zigomatics and variants, petrous and variants and retrosigmoid, and they can be combined. The choice for a surgical approach is usually on the location and size of the tumor, on the skull shape, as the involvement of venous structures and according to the surgeon´s experience.

Conclusion- Petroclival meningiomas are rare and complex on the skull base. The adequate choice is crucial to achieve the good surgical result.