POSTTRAUMATIC MENINGIOMA - EXPLANATION OF AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC DICHOTOMY

A 23-year-old soldier sustained a penetrating gunshot wound to the rig ht frontoparietal region of the head in 1971 while serving in Vietnam. In 1984, he developed headaches and seizures, and a meningioma was fo und at the cranioplasty site. Recurrent meningiomas, requiring resecti on, developed at this site in 1988 and 1990, In 1994, he developed rig ht proptosis. An extensive mass involving the right intraorbital regio n and the anterior and middle cranial fossa was found. Pathological ex amination of this tumor demonstrated malignant meningioma. Although an tecedent head trauma has been implicated as a risk factor for meningio ma, epidemiological studies of this association have yielded divergent conclusions. An explanation for this epidemiologic dichotomy is sugge sted.