Occipital transtentorial approach for removal of pineal region tumors: report of 64 consecutive cases.

A series of 64 patients with pineal region tumors operated on between 1981 and 1985 at the Beijing Neurosurgical Institute is reported. All were approached using an occipital transtentorial technique. A gross total or radical subtotal removal was achieved in 87% with a total mortality and morbidity of less than 10%. The relative advantages of this particular approach to the pineal region are discussed. It is concluded that the transtentorial approach to the pineal region provides excellent visualization and circumvents many of the pitfalls of other approaches to this region.