INTRACRANIAL MENINGIOMAS - CORRELATION OF PERITUMORAL EDEMA AND PSYCHIATRIC DISTURBANCES

Patients with proven intracranial meningioma were reexamined for psych iatric morbidity. Distribution according to type of meningioma was as follows: 72% convexity meningiomas and 28% base-of-skull meningiomas. No psychiatric disorders were diagnosed in the nonconvexity group in c ontrast to 44% in the convexity meningiomas. Among the convexity menin giomas, no difference between right- and left-hemispheric locations wa s found. Psychiatric comorbidity in the right-hemisphere group was fou nd only in patients with frontal lobe meningiomas. Edema width was mea sured on all computed tomographic scan slices on which it appeared, an d the average of all the slices was calculated. No correlation was fou nd between neurological symptoms and edema severity. A statistically s ignificant correlation was found between edema volume and the presence of coexisting psychiatric disorders, but not between the tumor's mass volume and the psychiatric symptoms.