Clinical presentation of "silent" meningiomas after general anaesthesia.

We present two patients who became unrousable within 48h after general anaesthesia for non-neurosurgical operations; both were found to have frontal meningiomas. Analysis of these and previous reports suggest that several anaesthetic and perioperative factors probably combine to contribute to the accelerated presentation of these previously "silent" tumours, and we recommend that dexamethasone should be administered early in the course of unexplained neurological deterioration after operation.