CEREBELLOPONTINE ANGLE TUMORS

Objective: To provide information about cerebellopontine angle tumors in Saudi Arabia. Methods: The authors reviewed 34 consecutive patients that had surgery for 35 cerebellopontine angle tumors at King Khalid University Hospital between 1988-1995. Results: There was a relatively high percentage of meningioma (37%) and an unusually low percentage o f acoustic neuroma (31%) in our series which included unique lesions s uch as a case of a lymphoma and another with a paraganglioma. The tumo r was more than 4 cm in size in 74% of patients. The latter explains t he relatively high incidence of deafness (91%), ataxia (71%) and hydro cephalus (31%) in our patients. Complete excision was achieved in 91% of the acoustic neuromas. The lowest rate of complete excision was for the petroclival meningiomas (43%). The most common deficit following surgery was facial paresis. The latter complication was observed in 12 patients (9 acoustic neuromas, 2 meningiomas, 1 paraganglioma). All o f whom but one had total excision of their tumors. Conclusions: To imp rove the management results of cerebellopontine angle turners in Saudi Arabia, patients must be diagnosed and referred early. In addition, s ince the surgery for these lesions demands a special neurosurgical exp ertise, a well-equipped neurotheatre and the availability of modern ne urophysiological monitoring. It is recommended that surgery for cerebe llopontine angle tumors in Saudi Arabia should be centralized to a lim ited number of hospitals and a limited number of neurosurgeons who can develop more expertise in this complex surgery.