Microsurgical resection of foramen magnum meningioma: multi-institutional retrospective case series and proposed surgical risk scoring system.

PURPOSE: Foramen magnum meningiomas (FMMs) are a major surgical challenge, due to relevant surgical morbidity and mortality. The paper aims to review the clinical (symptomatic improvement, complication rate, length of hospital stay) and radiological outcome (completeness of resection) of microsurgical resection of FMMs, and to identify predictors of complications.

METHODS

A multi-institutional retrospective review of prospectively maintained database of FMMs included 51 patients (74.5% females) with a median tumor volume of 8.18 cm3 (range, 1.77-57.9 cm3) and median follow-up of 36 months (range, 0.30-180.0 months). Tumors were resected though suboccipital approach (58.8%) or posterior-lateral approaches (39.3%), including far-lateral, extreme lateral and transcondylar approaches.

RESULTS

Gross-total resection (GTR) was achieved in 80.4% and 98% of cases did not present tumor regrowth or recurrence. Clinical symptoms improved in 34 patients (66.7%) and worsened in 5 (9.8%). The median length of hospital stay was 5 days. Mortality was null. Postoperative complications developed in 15 patients (29.4%), with cerebrospinal fluid leak (7.8%) and lower cranial nerves deficits (7.8%) as the most frequent. Craniospinal location (p = 0.03), location anterior to the dentate ligament (DL) (p = 0.02), involvement of vertebral artery (VA) (p = 0.03) were significantly associated with complication rate. These three elements allow calculating the Foramen Magnum Meningioma Risk Score (FRMMRS), to estimate the risk of post-operative complications.

CONCLUSION

Microsurgical resection allows for high GTR rate and low rate of tumor regrowth or recurrence, despite complications in one third of the patients. The FMMRS allows classifying FMMs and estimating the risk of post-operative complications.