Usefulness of Reintervention in Recurrent Glioblastoma: An Indispensable Weapon for Increasing Survival.

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma is the most frequent primary brain tumor and despite of complete treatment survival is still poor. The aim of this study is to define the utility of reoperation for improving survival in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, and determine other prognostic factors associated with longer survival. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of those patients who underwent surgery and compared those who were operated two or more times and those who received surgery only once. We studied overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and clinical variables that could be related with higher survival. RESULTS: A total of 121 patients were eligible for the study, of whom 31 (25%) underwent reoperation. The reoperation group had a mean and median increase survival of 10.5 and 16.4 months in OS and 3.5 and 2.7 months for PFS compared with the non-reoperation group (P < 0.001 and 0.01, respectively). Although complications were higher in patients that underwent reintervention (19.3%) there was no statistical difference with complication rate in first surgery (12.4%, χ2 = 1.86; P = 0.40). Cox multivariable analysis revealed that age (hazard ratio [HR] 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.006-1.055; P = 0.013), reoperation (HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.285-0.810; P = 0.006), extent of resection >95% (HR, 0.547; 95% CI, 0.401-0.748; P < 0.001), and complete adjuvant therapy (HR, 0.389; 95% CI, 0.208-0.726; P = 0.003) were correlated with a higher OS. CONCLUSIONS: Reoperation and the extent of resection (EOR) are the only surgical variables that neurosurgeons can modify to improve survival in our patients. Higher EOR and reoperation rates in patients who can be candidates for second surgery, will increase OS and PFS.

Proposed clinical internal carotid artery classification system.

INTRODUCTION: Numerical classification systems for the internal carotid artery (ICA) are available, but modifications have added confusion to the numerical systems. Furthermore, previous classifications may not be applicable uniformly to microsurgical and endoscopic procedures. The purpose of this study was to develop a clinically useful classification system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed cadaver dissections of the ICA in 5 heads (10 sides) and evaluated 648 internal carotid arteries with computed tomography angiography. We identified specific anatomic landmarks to define the beginning and end of each ICA segment. RESULTS: The ICA was classified into eight segments based on the cadaver and imaging findings: (1) Cervical segment; (2) cochlear segment (ascending segment of the ICA in the temporal bone) (relation of the start of this segment to the base of the styloid process: Above, 425 sides [80%]; below, 2 sides [0.4%]; at same level, 107 sides [20%]; P < 0.0001) (relation of cochlea to ICA: Posterior, 501 sides [85%]; posteromedial, 84 sides [14%]; P < 0.0001); (3) petrous segment (horizontal segment of ICA in the temporal bone) starting at the crossing of the eustachian tube superolateral to the ICA turn in all 10 samples; (4) Gasserian-Clival segment (ascending segment of ICA in the cavernous sinus) starting at the petrolingual ligament (PLL) (relation to vidian canal on imaging: At same level, 360 sides [63%]; below, 154 sides [27%]; above, 53 sides [9%]; P < 0.0001); in this segment, the ICA projected medially toward the clivus in 275 sides (52%) or parallel to the clivus with no deviation in 256 sides (48%; P < 0.0001); (5) sellar segment (medial loop of ICA in the cavernous sinus) starting at the takeoff of the meningeal hypophyseal trunk (ICA was medial into the sella in 271 cases [46%], lateral without touching the sella in 127 cases [23%], and abutting the sella in 182 cases [31%]; P < 0.0001); (6) sphenoid segment (lateral loop of ICA within the cavernous sinus) starting at the crossing of the fourth cranial nerve on the lateral aspect of the cavernous ICA and located directly lateral to the sphenoid sinus; (7) ring segment (ICA between the 2 dural rings) starting at the crossing of the third cranial nerve on the lateral aspect of the ICA; (8) cisternal segment starting at the distal dural ring. CONCLUSIONS: The classification may be applied uniformly to all skull base surgical approaches including lateral microsurgical and ventral endoscopic approaches, obviating the need for 2 separate classification systems. The classification allows extrapolation of relevant clinical information because each named segment may indicate potential surgical risk to specific structures.

Infratentorial angioleiomyoma: case report and review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION: Intracranial angioleiomyomas are extremely rare lesions. Only 22 intracranial angioleiomyomas have been described in the literature and only three were infratentorial. CASE REPORT: We report a case of an infratentorial angioleiomyoma in a 43 year-old-man, who underwent a brain computer tomography because of hearing loss. The MRI showed a 1.4 cm tumor, initially described as a meningioma, with progressive enhancement after gadolinium injection, an augmented apparent diffusion coefficient and a generalized metabolite decreased in the spectroscopy. The lesion was surgically removed through a suboccipital approach with a good evolution and without postoperative complications. In the immunohistological study, the lesion was mainly composed of multiple vessels and the immunohistochemistry was positive for actin and caldesmon. Two years after surgery, no recurrence has been found in the MRI. CONCLUSION: Angioleiomyomas diagnostic may be complex, but some radiological features could help in the differential diagnostic. Angioleiomyomas are benign tumors associated with favorable outcomes after total resection, that in our case, did not show a significant bleeding risk.

TITLE: Angioleiomioma infratentorial: caso clinico y revision de la bibliografia.Introduccion. Los angioleiomiomas intracraneales son lesiones muy poco frecuentes. Solo se han descrito 22 casos en la bibliografia hasta la actualidad, unicamente tres de ellos de localizacion infratentorial. Caso clinico. Varon de 43 años con un angioleiomioma infratentorial descubierto de forma incidental tras la realizacion de una tomografia computarizada por hipoacusia. La resonancia magnetica mostro una tumoracion de 1,4 cm, descrita inicialmente como un meningioma, con un realce progresivo tras la administracion de gadolinio, un aumento del coeficiente de difusion aparente y un descenso generalizado de metabolitos en la espectroscopia. La lesion se reseco quirurgicamente mediante un abordaje suboccipital con buena evolucion y sin complicaciones postoperatorias. En el estudio histologico, la lesion presentaba un abundante componente vascular, y en la tincion inmunohistoquimica era positiva para actina y caldesmona. Dos años despues de la cirugia, el paciente no presentaba recurrencia en la resonancia magnetica de control. Conclusion. El diagnostico de los angioleiomiomas puede ser complejo, pero algunas de sus caracteristicas radiologicas pueden facilitarlo. Los angioleiomiomas son tumores benignos asociados con un resultado funcional favorable tras su reseccion completa, que en nuestro caso no presento un alto riesgo de sangrado.

Angioleiomioma infratentorial: caso clínico y revisión de la bibliografía / Infratentorial angioleiomyoma: case report and review of the literature

Introducción. Los angioleiomiomas intracraneales son lesiones muy poco frecuentes. Sólo se han descrito 22 casos en la bibliografía hasta la actualidad, únicamente tres de ellos de localización infratentorial. Caso clínico. Varón de 43 años con un angioleiomioma infratentorial descubierto de forma incidental tras la realización de una tomografía computarizada por hipoacusia. La resonancia magnética mostró una tumoración de 1,4 cm, descrita inicialmente como un meningioma, con un realce progresivo tras la administración de gadolinio, un aumento del coeficiente de difusión aparente y un descenso generalizado de metabolitos en la espectroscopia. La lesión se resecó quirúrgicamente mediante un abordaje suboccipital con buena evolución y sin complicaciones postoperatorias. En el estudio histológico, la lesión presentaba un abundante componente vascular, y en la tinción inmunohistoquímica era positiva para actina y caldesmona. Dos años después de la cirugía, el paciente no presentaba recurrencia en la resonancia magnética de control. Conclusión. El diagnóstico de los angioleiomiomas puede ser complejo, pero algunas de sus características radiológicas pueden facilitarlo. Los angioleiomiomas son tumores benignos asociados con un resultado funcional favorable tras su resección completa, que en nuestro caso no presentó un alto riesgo de sangrado (AU)

Introduction. Intracranial angioleiomyomas are extremely rare lesions. Only 22 intracranial angioleiomyomas have been described in the literature and only three were infratentorial. Case report. We report a case of an infratentorial angioleiomyoma in a 43 year-old-man, who underwent a brain computer tomography because of hipoacusia. The MRI showed a 1.4 cm tumor, initially described as a meningioma, with progressive enhancement after gadolinium injection, an augmented apparent diffusion coefficient and a generalized metabolite decreased in the spectroscopy. The lesion was surgically removed through a suboccipital approach with a good evolution and without postoperative complications. In the inmunohistological study, the lesion was mainly composed of multiple vessels and the immunohistochemistry was positive for actina and caldesmon. Two years after surgery, no recurrence has been found in the MRI. Conclusion. Angioleiomyomas diagnostic may be complex, but some radiological features could help in the differential diagnostic. Angioleiomyomas are benign tumors associated with favorable outcomes after total resection, that in our case, did not show a significant bleeding risk (AU)

Dumbbell-Shaped Epidural Capillary Hemangioma Presenting as a Lung Mass: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

STUDY DESIGN: A case report and literature review. OBJECTIVE: We present the fourth case of a spinal epidural capillary hemangioma with a dumbbell-shaped appearance in the magnetic resonance image reported in the literature and the second presented as a lung mass. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Hemangiomas are congenital vascular malformations that pathologists frequently consider to be hamartomatous malformations. Hemangiomas of the spine are usually lesions of the vertebral bodies, but they can sit in other locations such as the intramedullary or epidural space. Purely epidural hemangiomas are rare and most of them are of cavernous type. METHODS: We present a 67-year-old female with a thoracic dumbbell-shaped capillary hemangioma with both foraminal and intrathoracic extensions, whose presentation was pleural effusion associated with mediastinal mass suggestive of pulmonary neoplasia. Surgical treatment consisted of total removal en bloc of the lesion. RESULTS: Microscopic evaluation showed a fibrofatty tissue with a proliferation of vascular structures that were generally of a small size, with areas of myxoid appearance. To date, there have been 8 epidural capillary hemangiomas of the thoracic and lumbar spine reported in the literature, and only 3 of them were dumbbell-shaped with extraforaminal extension. CONCLUSION: It is important to consider the diagnosis of hemangiomas in the differential diagnosis of epidural lesions with dumbbell-shaped appearance in the magnetic resonance image, especially at the thoracic level. It is a benign and potentially curable disease and the most appropriate surgical treatment is en bloc resection of the entire lesion. They are usually presented as a progressive myelopathy, so early treatment may prevent permanent neurological deficits. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 5.