[A one-stage combined approach to tumors in the anterobasal portions of the third ventricle].

Regardless of the current progress in microneurosurgery, the operative management of tumors in the third ventricle is associated with a number of difficulties, and poses a serious challenge to surgeons. A numerous group of neoplasms with the aforementioned location are characterized by developmental course with secondary involvement of the III ventricle. Usually, it is a matter of tumors with suprasellar evolution (craniopharyngiomas, hypophyseal adenomas etc), penetrating through lamina terminalis and growing within the cavity of the ventricle. Radical removal of some of these tumors requires a many-staged approach--basal and transventricular--undertaken at different periods of time. The analysis covers five patients presenting tumors of the III ventricle--4 craniopharyngiomas and 1 dermoid cyst--where single stage basal (across lamina terminalis) and direct (transcallosal or across the lateral ventricle) access to the third ventricle is gained. The situations where such an approach is practicable, the peculiarities of the surgical technique, and the treatment results are discussed.