Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of the work. Meningioma-associated proptosis (MAP) can be a cosmetic and functional disorder
debilitating for patients with wedge-orbital meningioma and other meningiomas of the base of the skull, and there is limited
information on the quantitative improvement of proptosis after surgery. Since less extensive removal of the tumor
affecting the orbit cannot reduce proptosis, the senior author adopted an aggressive surgical approach to the removal of
the tumor affecting the periorbital and orbit. The authors of this study retrospectively reviewed the results of this surgical
approach.
Material and methods. All MAP operations performed by one surgeon from January 1, 2010 to May 1, 2020 were reviewed.
Age, gender, visual symptoms, number and types of surgical interventions, cavernous sinus lesion, complications,
duration of follow-up, residual tumor, use of adjuvant radiation therapy and the degree of resolution of proptosis measured
by the exophthalmos index (IE) before and after surgery, as well as at the last observation.
Results. Thirty-three patients (24 women - 73%) with an average age of 51.6 years underwent treatment for MAP. Of the
22 patients with additional visual symptoms (for example, loss of visual acuity, reduced field of vision or diplopia), 15
had improved vision, and 7 had stable vision. None of the patients had a worsening of proptosis after treatment. The average
preoperative IE was 1.39, the average IE in the immediate postoperative period was 1.23, and the average final IE
at the last observation was 1.13. Thus, the average overall improvement in IE was 0.26, but the average immediate decrease
in IE was 0.16, demonstrating a progressive improvement in proptosis in the postoperative period. Residual cavernous
sinus lesion was present in 17 out of 18 patients who had preoperative cavernous sinus meningioma lesion. Only
2 patients in this series had a recurrent tumor in the eye socket area, and their proptosis improved again after repeated surgery. One case of delayed vasospasm and 2 cases of postoperative trigeminal nerve numbness (V2) were registered.
The average follow-up period was 4.5 years (53.8 months).
Conclusion. In this series of studies, all patients experienced an improvement in proptosis, and none of them had worse
visual symptoms at the last observation, although proptosis disappeared over time. Only 2 patients had a recurrence of
the orbit tumor, which required surgical intervention. Surgical complications were rare. The results of the study show
that aggressive resection of the MAP is well tolerated and provides excellent elimination of proptosis with infrequent relapses
in orbit. It is important to note that there have been no cases of enophthalmos, despite the absence of a formal reconstruction
of the orbit.