Tumores da base do crânio em pacientes idosos

Skull base tumors in old-aged population Objective: Assessment of surgical removal of skull base tumors in old patients by the Glasgow outcome scale. Patients and Methods: Fourty diagnosed skull base tumors in patients older than 60 years were enrolled and followed up during and after the surgical procedure. The great majority of the lesions were benign (75%) and the most common ones were schwannoma and meningioma. Results: Surgical and clinical complications occurred in about one third of the cases (transitory in most of them). 87% of the patients were functionally independent by the time of the diagnosis. After the surgical procedure 80% kept their independence. There was one death (2.5%) related to the craniotomy. Conclusion: Surgical approach is the best treatment to the majority of patients, affording total or subtotal tumor removal, neural decompression and histological diagnosis. A high rate of independent patients and low mortality risk was achieved in this series.