EVALUATION OF 5TH NERVE DYSFUNCTION IN 136 PATIENTS WITH MIDDLE AND POSTERIOR CRANIAL FOSSAE TUMORS

One-hundred thirty-six patients operated on for extra-axial tumors of the posterior and middle cranial fossae were retrospectively evaluated to define the relevance of trigeminal nerve dysfunction and to correl ate clinical and surgical observations. The following data are reporte d: tumor types, presence of specific trigeminal symptoms and signs, me an duration of symptomatology, anatomical relation between tumor and f ifth nerve. Trigeminal symptoms were present in 45 subjects (33.08%) w ith a mean duration of 23.56 months. Frequency of symptoms was differe nt in various oncotypes. Fifth nerve disturbances were the symptom of onset in 18 subjects (13.23%). A tumoral involvement of the nerve was reported at surgery in 73 patients (53.67%) and was defined as contact , compression or infiltration. Postoperatively, 12 patients showed an improvement of fifth nerve disturbances. A statistically significant d ifference (p < 0.05) was found in: (1) the incidence of symptoms in pa tients with and in those without anatomical trigeminal involvement: (2 ) the incidence of signs in the same groups; (3) the incidence of post operative relief in patients with fifth nerve compression compared to patients with different surgical findings; (4) the incidence of postop erative relief in patients with typical trigeminal neuralgia compared to those with other symptoms.