Background: Results from surgical series of tuberculum and planum sphenoidale meningiomas tends to be heterogeneous. Sekhar-Mortazavi tumor classification system has been recently proposed in order to predict the surgical risk and outcome.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a consecutive series of tuberculum and planum sphenoidale meningioma operated at our institution between 2009 and 2016. Sekhar-Mortazavi Tumor Classification was applied to classify these tumors and evaluate the outcome.
Results: Twenty-seven patients were included in the study. There were 22 females (81%) and 5 males (19%). The mean age was 54 years (range 33-78). According to Sekhar-Mortazavi Tumor Classification: 14 patients (51.85%) were class I, 11 (40.74%) patients were in class II and 2 patients (7.41%) were in class III. Twenty-one patients (77.7%) presented with visual symptoms and deficits at preoperative neuro-ophthalmological examination. Sekhar-Mortazavi class I tumors had a postoperative visual improvement in 77.7% of cases while patients in Sekhar-Mortazavi class II-III had a postoperative visual improvement in 66.6% of cases (P=0.5). No patient had deterioration of optic nerve/chiasmal function following surgery. Gross total resection was obtained in 25 patients (92.5%) without any significative difference between class I and Class II-III tumors. Permanent endocrine dysfunction was observed only in one patient in SM Class II tumor. 3 patients (11%) showed a postoperative persistent cranial nerve deficit (2 patients were anosmic and one patient had a trochlear nerve deficit). None of the patients showed postoperative CSF leak. No onset of new seizures was observed postoperatively. There was no mortality or major morbidity in this series.
Conclusions: Transcranial surgery provided very satisfying results with respect to visual and endocrine outcomes with very low surgical morbidity. The Sekhar-Mortazavi classification showed a trend towards better visual outcomes in Class I tumors. The classification system is easy to apply and could therefore prove useful to compare results between studies reported in literature, especially when comparisons are made between transcranial and endonasal surgery.