IntroductionCavernous hemangiomas are rare benign bone tumors and those at the level of the cranial bones are even rarer.Case presentationA 50-year-old woman of Italian ethnicity presented with a frontal mass. A computed tomography scan showed an osteolytic lesion and a magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed a hypointense lesion on the T1-weighted image and a hyperintense lesion on the T2-weighted image. We performed a tailored craniectomy and cranioplasty. Histological examination revealed a cavernous hemangioma.ConclusionsThese benign tumors do not have classic radiographic features and so can be misinterpreted as lesions like multiple myeloma or osteosarcoma. Consequently, the diagnosis is most often made during surgical resection.

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Background: The endovascular techniques has widely changed the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. However surgery still represent the best therapeutic option in case of broad-based and complex lesions. The combined use of endoscopic and microsurgical techniques (EAM) may improve surgical results.Objective: The purpose of our study is to evaluate the advantages and limits of EAM for intracranial aneurysms.Methods: Between January 2002 and December 2012, 173 patients, harboring 206 aneurysms were surgically treated in our department with the EAM technique. One hundred and fifty-seven aneurysms were located in the anterior circulation and 49 were in the posterior circulation. Standard tailored approaches, based on skull base surgery principles, were chosen. The use of the endoscope included three steps: initial inspection, true operative time, and final inspection. For each procedure, an intraoperative video and an evaluation schedule were prepared, to report surgeons’ opinions about the technique itself. In the first cases, we always used the endoscope during surgical procedures in order to get an adequate surgical training. Afterwards we became aware in selecting cases in which to apply the endoscopy, as we started to become familiar with its advantages and limits.Results: After clipping, all patients were undergone postoperative cerebral angiography. No surgical mortality related to EAM were observed. Complications directly related to endoscopic procedures were rare.Conclusion: Our retrospective study suggests that endoscopic efficacy for aneurysms is only scarcely influenced by the preoperative clinical condition (Hunt–Hess grade), surgical timing, presence of blood in the cisterns (Fisher grade) and/or hydrocephalus. However the most important factors contributing to the efficacy of EAM are determined by the anatomical locations and sizes of the lesions. Furthermore, the advantages are especially evident using dedicated scopes and holders, after an adequate surgical training to increase the learning curve.

Background:Facial nerve schwannomas include only 0.8% of all intrapetrous mass lesions, and schwannomas originating exclusively from the greater petrosal nerve (GPN) are extremely rare. To date, only 13 reports have been described. In this case, the tumor was thought to originate from the GPN on the basis of clinical, radiological, and operative findings.Case Description:A 23-year-old girl presented an acute left facial palsy, a disturbance in tear secretion of the ipsilateral eye, and a left-sided conductive hypoacusia. Computed tomography (CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed an extradural mass in the left middle fossa. A subtemporal approach was performed and the lesion, originating from the proximal portion of the GPN, was excised. The post-operative course was satisfactory, except for a xerophtalmia, which was treated with artificial teardrops.Conclusion:GPN schwannomas can originate anywhere alongside the course of the nerve, from its proximal segment near the facial hiatus to its distal segment near the foramen lacerum. For these reasons, it requires differential diagnosis with trigeminal nerve schwannomas or with injuries arising from the geniculate ganglion, because it can be easily confused with those lesions. However, in less severe cases, an early diagnosis can be able to preserve the function of the facial nerve by reducing iatrogenic injuries caused by surgical maneuvers.