[Preoperative embolization of the internal carotid artery in surgical treatment of meningioma in the base of the anterior and middle cranial fossae].

Preoperative embolization is a widely used technique that may decrease blood supply to rich-vascurized tumors of the brain. Its use allows a neurosurgeon to safely remove a tumor of different histological nature and site. The objects of preoperative embolization are most commonly meningiomas at convexital or parasagittal sites. According to the data available in the literature, the internal carotid or ocular artery was embolized in not more than 10 cases. The described case underwent successful embolization of the involved internal carotid whose branches took an active part in supplying blood to the meningioma of the base of the skull. This permitted total resection of a generalized meningioma of the anterior and middle parts of the base of the skull.