Background: Delicate enucleation of neurilemmoma preserves most of nerve fascicles and causes minimal nerve function impairment. Accurate preoperative diagnosis of neurilemmoma is based on clinical findings and image studies.
Materials and methods: Between November 2003 and February 2013, operations for the treatment of neurilemmoma were performed on 14 patients (12 men and 2 women) at our institution. The image studies in this series were collected. The tumor mass was approached by splitting the epineurium. In a few cases, enucleation of the neurilemmoma caused some fascicles loss, but reconstruction with sural nerve grafts preserved nerve function.
Results: Before surgery, 7 patients received computed tomographic scan, 4 patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging, and 3 patients received sonography. Six patients presented with motor or sensory deficits immediately after tumor enucleation. Three patients recovered completely from the neurological defects with or without nerve reconstruction.
Conclusions: Our results indicate that neurilemmoma can be removed by delicate enucleation with an acceptable risk of injury to the nerve trunk.