[Immediate and remote results of surgical treatment of meningioma in the area of the small wing of the sphenoid bone].

Symptoms and therapeutic results are reported in 21 cases of the sphenoidal ridge meningiomas. These meningiomas are usually not recognized in an early stage of typical of intracranial tumours. Headaches as an early symptoms were the complaint in only 10 cases. In the stage of clinical manifestations 9 patients had no visual disturbances, in 4 cases the eye fundus was not changed, in 13 there were no visual field defects. Unilateral exophthalmos was present in 5 cases, radiological changes in 13. The first five patients operated upon under local anaesthesia were lost, but out of the remaining 16 patients operated upon under general anaesthesia only 1 died of septicaemia three weeks after the operation. A considerable facilitation of the operation was the sitting position of the patients which make possible a good insight into the operation field (Fig. 1). At the time of collecting data about the fates of the patients 10 lived without help, six of them returned to their previous occupations, and 4 other ones were partly disabled because of poor visual acuity. Two patients required continuous care because of frequent epileptic seizures. One patient had recurrence after 3 years and was treated surgically again with success.