Foramen magnum meningioma: successful surgical resection in a 76-year-old Nigerian.

Abstract

Adeleye AO, Rabiu TB. Foramen Magnum Meningioma: Successful Surgical Resection ... Cen Eur Neurosurg 2011; 72: 44 – 45 Introduction ▼ Foramen magnum meningioma (FMM) is a very rare intracranial lesion [1] . It constitutes such a small percentage (about 2 % ) of brain tumors [2] that even high volume neurosurgical centers in Western countries report series averaging only one case per year [2 – 3] . One explanation for this rarity is the diffi culty in making a clinical diagnosis of FMM, especially before the advent of diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [4 – 6] . The other, more important, reason, however, is the great technical challenge of tumor-ablative surgery in the foramen magnum, a highly limited bony region crowded over by many critical neural-vascular structures of the cervicomedullary junction [7 – 9] . This may actually be the main reason why reports of surgical treatment of FMM are much rarer still from resourcepoor settings. We present one case recently managed successfully in such a practice setting in Nigeria. We are not aware of any other similar report in the accessible literature from Africa.