Fatal hemorrhagic infarction of posterior fossa meningioma during cardiopulmonary bypass.

Few publications address cardiac surgery in the presence of meningioma. Individual complications include transient visual loss from a suprasellar meningioma, hemiparesis after mitral valve replacement with recovery after resection, and non-fatal hemorrhage into a posterior fossa meningioma. The largest report of 16 patients with known meningiomas over 11 years suggested a benign course, with no new neurologic symptoms and no required resection of a meningioma over an average follow-up of 31 months. In 2 cases we report a presumed posterior fossa meningioma led to fatal outcome after cardiac surgery performed on bypass. Possible causes and future considerations are discussed.