Initiating a new national epilepsy surgery program: Experiences gathered in Georgia.

Surgery is the most effective therapeutic approach for medically refractory epilepsies and a safe and cost-efficient treatment in terms of long-term expenses of direct, indirect, and intangible costs. Georgia is a Caucasian low- to middle-income country with a remarkable effort to deal with epileptic diseases, but without an appropriate epilepsy surgery program. To address the needs for such a service in this country, two joint German-Georgian projects were initiated in 2017 and 2019.

[Skull base meningiomas spreading into the infratemporal fossa: clinical picture, diagnosis, and treatment policy].

From 1997 to 2004, the Academician N. N. Burdenko Research Institute of Neurosurgery has operated on 54 patients with intracranial meningiomas spreading into the infratemporal fossa.

[Surgery for hyperostotic cranial orbital meningiomas].

The paper analyzes surgical techniques for removal of hyperostotic cranial orbital meningiomas in 36 patients operated on in 1998 to 2000. In 19 cases hyperostosis extends to the upper and lower lid slits without involving the optic canal. It also spreads to the ethmoidal sinus in 6 cases to the frontal sinus in 3, and to the maxillary one in 2 patients.

[Disseminated craniofacial chondrosarcoma].

Chondrosarcomas are malignant mesenchymal tumors of chondroid nature. Less than 5% of all chondrosarcomas are localized in the head and neck. The paper analyzes a case of extensive chondrosarcoma of the skill base, which involves the anterior and median cranial fossa, ethmoidal, sphenoidal, right maxillary sinuses, and intratemporal fossa.