Surgical management and follow-up of lateral skull base tumors: An 8-year review.

The purpose of the present article was to describe the diagnostic evaluation of, and surgical approaches to, lateral skull base tumors (LSBTs). The study is a retrospective review of 21 patients diagnosed with tumors that involve lateral skull base (8 with malignant diseases and 13 with benign lesions) who were surgically treated during a 8-year period. The transparotid-transmandibular (38%) was the most commonly performed surgical procedure, followed by the transmandibular (24%), the transmaxillary (24%), the transcervical approach (10%) and the combined approach (4%). The surgical procedures were uneventful and there were no postoperative mortalities. Complications were encountered in 12 cases, and morbidity was not remarkable during the perioperative stages. After an average follow-up of 46 months, only 1 of 14 patients with benign diseases had a recurrence following the resection of a pleomorphic adenoma. Of 7 patients with malignant tumors, 5 are alive with no evidence of disease. The majority of the benign lateral skull base tumors can be removed surgically with a low rate of complications and recurrence. However, malignant neoplasms carry a poor prognosis and a low rate of disease-free survival.