Accurate pre-operative estimation of possible extradural growth is crucial towards surgical planning and sufficient treatment. Treatment of choice is total resection in a single operating session to avoid re-operations and increased risk of complications. If not possible, a re-operation should always attempt to secure the desired result.

Patient: Male, 58-year-old Final Diagnosis: Epidermoid cyst Symptoms: Exophthalmos Medication:— Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Neurosurgery Objective: Rare disease Background: Calvarial epidermoid cysts (EC) are encased remnants of ectoderm at the third week of gestation. There are also reports which consider them sequelae of head trauma. They are benign lesions. As they develop, they exert a mass effect to adjacent anatomical structures. Case Report: We report the case of a 58-year-old male patient with left-sided exophthalmos. His radiologic examinations depicted an oval cystic lesion (7×5×5.5 cm) arising from the left frontal bone and abutting the ipsilateral orbital roof. Our patient underwent a total extirpation of the lesion through a frontal craniectomy. Cranioplasty was then performed with a Porex ® graft. The pearl-hued lamellae of the lesion macroscopically resembled keratin tissue. Histopathological findings supported the diagnosis of an epidermoid cyst. Postoperatively, our patient had no neurologic deficits and a computed tomography scan showed no residual effects. Conclusions: Large calvarial EC with intraorbital expansion in adults are rare clinical entities. Gross total resection with the infiltrated bone and cranioplasty is the treatment of choice, which also establishes the diagnosis.

Background-Aims: Peritoneal colorectal carcinomatosis is a potentially curative disease. The purpose of the study is the retrospective analysis of survival of the patients with peritoneal colorectal carcinomatosis that underwent cytoreductive surgery and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy and the identification of prognostic variables of the disease. Patients-Methods: Patients with primary or recurrent colorectal cancer and peritoneal carcinomatosis were included in the study. Clinical variables were correlated to survival, recurrence, hospital mortality, and morbidity. Results: From 2000-2010, 28 patients underwent 33 cytoreductive operations. The hospital mortality and morbidity rate was 9.1% and 45.5% respectively. The overall 5-year and median survival time was 29.2% and 19 months respectively. The extent of peritoneal carcinomatosis (p = 0.0003) and the completeness of cytoreduction (p = 0.0002) were related to survival. The completeness of cytoreduction (p = 0.003) was the single prognostic variable of survival. The recurrence rate was 42.4% and the use of systemic chemotherapy was identified as the single prognostic variable of recurrence (p = 0.047). Conclusions:Patients with limited extent of peritoneal colorectal carcinomatosis who undergo complete cytoreduction may be offered long-term survival.

Background Intracisternal Accessory Nerve Schwannomas (ANS) constitute a rare clinical entity with only a few cases reported so far. Their symptoms are usually due to brainstem compression and not manifested until they render of great size. Secondary neuropathy and muscle atrophy are other late signs. The hitherto reported literature advocates a suboccipital craniotomy as a suitable approach. In most of the cases the spinal root was the location tumor arose from. Gross total resection was possible to be carried out in most cases with only sporadic tolerable postoperative deficits reported. Case description We hereby present three cases of patients with intracisternal ANS treated in the same fashion. Two patients were male and one female. Two patients complained of mainly chronic headaches and neck pain, whereas in the third patient the lesion was found incidentally. Only one patient suffered post-operatively cerebrospinal fluid leakage and wound healing complication, which was treated with revision surgery and administration of antibiotics. None of the patients had postoperative neurological deficits. Furthermore, we conducted a review of the relevant literature where we noted that there is no consensus yet with regards to the appropriate surgical approach. Conclusions Based on relevant anatomical studies, we advocate that suboccipital subtonsilar approach provides a wide corridor to the area of lesion allowing complete and safe resection of intracisternal ANS. We thus support that, in most cases, the neurosurgeon should consider using this familiar approach for treating this rare lesion.