OBJECTIVE
In a multicenter study, 102 patients aged 70 years or older with paraplegia or severe paraparesis, and who underwent operation for spinal meningiomas, are presented to correlate surgery and outcome and to determine the most influential factors that affected this outcome.
METHODS
Five French neurosurgical centers participated in this retrospective study between 1990 and 2007. Pre- and postoperative neurological status were assessed using a grading system. All patients underwent operation, and neurological evaluations were conducted 3 months and 1 year after surgery. The median follow-up period was 49.5 months (range, 12–169 months). Data were analyzed using a multiple logistic regression model.
RESULTS
Twenty-six patients were paraplegic (Grade 4). Complete tumor removal was obtained in 93 patients. There was no surgical mortality, and morbidity was 9%. Three months after surgery, 7 of the patients were unchanged, 87 patients had improved, and 8 were not evaluated. One year after surgery, 7 of the 100 surviving patients were clinically unchanged and 93 had improved. Of those who had improved, 49 patients experienced complete recovery.
CONCLUSION
Advanced age did not seem to contraindicate surgery, even in patients with severe preoperative neurological deficits and/or an American Society of Anesthesiologists class of III. Quality of life can be improved in most cases.
1.5-T MRI with WAIR sequence provides high-quality images of Vim suitable in DBS surgery, for accurate preoperative planning, direct targeting and anatomic analysis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.