Surgical management and follow-up of lateral skull base tumors: An 8-year review

• DOI: 10.3892/mco.2017.1126
• Publication Date: 2017-01-10T08:32:55Z
• Authors: Jie Kong; Hong-Yu Yang; Yu-Fan Wang; Hui-Jun Yang; Shi-Yue Shen; Feng Wang
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; 13. Climate action; 3. Good health

The purpose of the present article was to describe the diagnostic evaluation of, and surgical approaches to, lateral skull base tumors (LSBTs). The study is a retrospective review of 21 patients diagnosed with tumors that involve lateral skull base (8 with malignant diseases and 13 with benign lesions) who were surgically treated during a 8-year period. The transparotid-transmandibular (38%) was the most commonly performed surgical procedure, followed by the transmandibular (24%), the transmaxillary (24%), the transcervical approach (10%) and the combined approach (4%). The surgical procedures were uneventful and there were no postoperative mortalities. Complications were encountered in 12 cases, and morbidity was not remarkable during the perioperative stages. After an average follow-up of 46 months, only 1 of 14 patients with benign diseases had a recurrence following the resection of a pleomorphic adenoma. Of 7 patients with malignant tumors, 5 are alive with no evidence of disease. The majority of the benign lateral skull base tumors can be removed surgically with a low rate of complications and recurrence. However, malignant neoplasms carry a poor prognosis and a low rate of disease-free survival.