MENINGIOMAS OF THE CEREBELLOPONTINE ANGLE - A REPORT OF 41 CASES

A retrospective study of the surgical management of 41 cerebellopontin e angle (CPA) meningiomas was performed. All patients were treated by a single surgeon (TTK) over a 25 year period (1967-1992). There were 1 3 males, 28 females with a median age of 53.5 years. The median follow -up after surgery was 9 years (range 2-20.4 years). Tumours were class ified anatomically into six groups (lateral, midpetrosal, petroclival, internal auditory meatal, Meckel's cave and inferior). Only the petro clival tumours posed difficulties with complete resection (achieved in 7 out of 16) and for most of them a transtentorial transpetrous appro ach was used. In other groups, complete resection was achieved in all patients. There were four recurrences (two mid-petrosal, one petrocliv al, one internal auditory meatal), three of which had complete macrosc opic resection at the initial operation.