Surgery for intracranial meningiomas in the elderly: a clinical-radiological grading system as a predictor of outcome.

OBJECT: A grading system, called the Clinical-Radiological Grading System (CRGS), has been developed to standardize surgical indications in elderly patients harboring intracranial meningiomas. Patients with a score lower than 10 had a bad prognosis regardless of surgical treatment, those with a score between 10 and 12 had a prognosis positively influenced by surgery, and those with a score higher than 12 had a good prognosis regardless of surgical treatment. The authors performed a prospective cross-sectional study to validate further the use of the CRGS as a clinical tool to orientate surgical decision making in elderly patients and to explore prognostic factors of survival.

METHODS: From 1990 to 2000 the authors consecutively recruited and surgically treated 90 patients 70 years of age or older with neuroimaging findings of intracranial meningiomas and a preoperative evaluation based on the CRGS. The surgical mortality rate, which covers deaths within 3 months after surgical intervention, was 7.8%, and the 1-year mortality rate was 15.6%. Female sex and a higher CRGS score were associated with a higher probability of survival. Among the different subset items of the CRGS score, no peritumoral edema for surgical survival and no concomitant diseases for 1-year survival provide the strongest predictive contribution, even if not at a statistically significant level.

CONCLUSIONS: The CRGS score is a useful and practical tool for the selection of elderly patients affected by intracranial meningiomas as surgical candidates. A CRGS score higher than 10 and female sex are good prognostic factors of survival. whereas age is not a contraindication to surgery.