gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Most publications dealing with olfactory groove meningioma focus on the operative approach; explaining why larger clinical series are still lacking. After having operated 68 olfactory groove meningioma we feel encouraged to report our outcome data and complication profile.

Method: A total of 68 patients underwent removal of an olfactory groove meningioma. In 28 patients, the right pterional and in the remaining 40 patients, the anterior interhemispheric approach (AIA) was used. The case files were retrospectively reviewed with focus on clinical outcome, complication rate and tumor remnant.

Results: Using the pterional approach or AIA, complete tumor removal was achieved in 67 of 68 patients (pterional: 27/28, AIA: 40/40; not statistically significant [n.s.]). Improvement of visual field cuts was observed in 10 of 13 patients (pterional: 6/8, AIA: 4/5; n.s.). Improvement of mental dysfunction was achieved in 30 of 32 patients (pterional: 19/20, AIA: 11/12, n.s.). The complication rate was 7.3% (n=5), again without significant differences between the approaches. The mortality rate was 1.4%.

Conclusions: Our large series documents, that, with contemporary technology and operative technique, olfactory groove meningioma can be effectively treated with a low morbidity and very low mortality rate. Despite preferring the AIA today, both approaches yielded comparable results. New approaches, especially the popular endoscopic approaches have to proof in larger series to be better or at least as good as the pterional and the anterior interhemispheric approach for olfactory groove meningioma.