TUMORS OF THE SKULL BASE - OUTCOME AND SURVIVAL ANALYSIS OF 77 CASES

We reviewed our experience with combined approaches to lesions that tr anscend the bones of the skull base. Seventy-seven skull base procedur es were performed on 73 patients during a 10-year period from 1982 to 1992. There were 34 patients (44%) with region I lesions (anterior), s even patients (9%) with region II lesions (anterior-lateral), 25 patie nts (32%) with region III lesions (lateral-posterior), and 11 patients (14%) with lesions that invaded more than one anatomic site. The hist opathology in this series was quite variable, with 22 patients (29%) h aving squamous cell carcinoma and eight patients (10%) having basal ce ll carcinoma. Forty-one patients had surgery by an anterior approach a nd 38 patients had lateral approaches, with 18 undergoing an infratemp oral approach and 29 undergoing temporal bone resections. Overall, 44% of the patients had a postoperative complication. Survival of this he terogeneous group of patients is 79% at 2 years and 71% at 4 years, wi th those patients with region II disease having a statistically signif icant poorer prognosis with no survivors at 4 years. (C) 1994 John Wil ey & Sons, Inc.