MENINGIOMA WITH PERIVASCULAR PSEUDOROSETTES - A MORPHOLOGICAL ENTITY DISTINCT FROM PAPILLARY MENINGIOMA

Although papillary meningioma is a well known variant of meningiomas, many of the previously reported cases do not seem to contain structure s that fulfill the classical microscopic descriptions of a papilla. Th e case of a 79-year-old man with a meningioma of the convexity is desc ribed. This meningioma was totally removed but recurred 36 months afte r surgery. The main cellular components of the tumor, some of them mim icking astrocytic cells, were arranged preferentially around vessels f eaturing perivascular pseudorosettes. The survey of the literature str esses a possible morphological misinterpretation of some of the mentio ned papillary variants. Although both papillary variants and those wit h perivascular pseudorosettes seem to display a similar, not always ma lignant, behavior, strictly from the morphological point of view they should be separated.