ROLE OF BRACHYTHERAPY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SKULL BASE MENINGIOMA - TREATMENT OF SKULL BASE MENINGIOMAS

Background. The treatment of primary and recurrent skull base meningio mas presents a formidable surgical problem. Methods. Fifteen patients with primary and recurrent skull base meningiomas were treated by mean s of interstitial irradiation with iodine 125 (I-125) seed implantatio n. The physical characteristics of I-125 enabled the authors to admini ster a minimum tumor dose ranging from 100 to 500 Gy at a low dose rat e of 0.05-0.25 Gy per hour. Results. All 15 patients are alive at a me dian follow-up of 29 months. Of the 15 patients, 2 with calcification and 2 without calcification achieved only partial responses. The remai ning 11 patients achieved a complete response. No early or late compli cations were observed. Conclusions. From these data, the authors concl ude that interstitial irradiation with I-125 seeds is an effective, sa fe, and simple method in the treatment of both recurrent and primary s kull base meningiomas.