Metastasis of breast carcinoma to intracranial meningioma.

A patient who had been treated for bilateral breast carcinoma subsequently developed a metastatic breast lesion in a meningioma. Although it is not uncommon for more than one tumor to occur in the same patient, metastases from one tumor into another tumor are rare (''tumor to tumor'' phenomenon). Meningiomas are the most common primary, intracranial tumors to harbor metastases, the majority of which arise from breast and lung carcinomas.

[Carotid body tumor: expedient surgical technique].

Six hundred cases of carotid body tumors are reported in Literature. This tumor originates from ganglia cells which are able to produce catecholamines. The percentage of bilateral involvement is 32%.

Surgical approaches to the clivus and upper cervical spine.

The surgical approach to the lesions of the craniocervical junction raises important problems about the choice of the access. The authors debate the advantages and the disadvantages of the principal approaches, presenting their clinical experience of 8 operated patients and discerning between intradural approaches and extradural submucosal or transmucosal approaches.