How to Treat Meningioma

A meningioma is a tumor arising from meningeal tissue. Meningiomas are usually found on the brain's surface but also may be found inside bone or ventricles occasionally. Meningiomas produce symptoms by compressing the brain, irritating the cortex and invading adjacent soft tissue. They are difficult to classify because their cells have epithelial and mesenchymal characteristics. The following steps will show how to treat a meningioma.

Instructions

• 1

  Perform surgery as the preferred treatment for most meningiomas. The specific procedures vary by location, but there are a few common strategies. All involved bone should be removed if possible. Any involved dura should be resected with a duraplasty.

• 2

  Implement strategies specific to particular locations for managing meningiomas. Coagulate dural blood vessels when opening the dura for convexity meningiomas. Perform dural grafting for parasagittal meningiomas. The primary consideration for these tumors is determining the involvement with the superior sagittal sinus.

• 3

  Make every attempt to completely resect the tumor, especially clival meningiomas. A partial resection usually does not benefit the patient and only makes additional surgeries more difficult.

• 4

  Use medication preoperatively to assist the surgery. Corticosteroids will reduce the mortality rate of a surgical resection and antiepileptic drugs also should be given in cases involving supratentorial surgery. Chemotherapy is not considered effective for treating meningiomas and is used only after surgery and radiotherapy have failed.

• 5

  Begin radiation treatments primarily as adjuvant therapy when the meningioma was not completely resected during surgery. It is also used as the primary treatment for unresectable tumors and meningiomas of the optic nerve.