Anyone had Endoscopic Endonasal surgery for a meningioma?

I also have a skull based meningioma and am considering Endoscopic Endonasal surgery. Have you had your meningioma treated yet?

@vernicek that’s how they did surgery on mine. Where are you going to have it done?

@jasonl1012

I’m meeting with Dr. Kirash Shahlaie at the UC Davis Medical Center today regarding the surgery. I also plan to get a second opinion at Stanford. How did the Endonasal surgery work for you. What was your recovery like?

Vernicek: Two years ago I had a craniotomy to remove a 2.7 centimeter skull-based meningioma that was 1/16th of an inch from my optic nerve. And being in the vicinity of a major artery made the surgery "tricky." I am happy to read you are getting a second opinion. I had my surgery, which was a success with limited side effects, at UCSF. They are rated #2 in the nation for neurosurgery. But, Stanford is also rated well.

Dr. Shahlaie was everything I hoped he would be: brilliant, calm, thorough, and kind! During my consultation, he explained that my small meningioma is not a candidate for Endonasal surgery because the instruments can’t safely cross the optic nerve canal. In addition, the Gammaknife is also not an option so close to the optic nerve. As an alternative, he mentioned that tiny doses of radiation administered for thirty days might work. However, since he thinks the tumor is small and new, the current plan is watch and wait, starting with two MRI’s six months apart and then yearly. Hopefully, I will never have to experience his very detailed description of a craniotomy!

@vernicek mine was quite the journey. The first neurosurgeon I went to said he’d have to do a craniotomy and lift my brain to see how the tumor presents. He stated he still probably couldn’t get it all. He gave me some pretty high percentages for stroke and death so I left pretty nervous. I then went to UPMC in Pittsburgh and Mayo Clinic in Rochester. They both made me feel much more comfortable and stated they would do it through the end of a nasal and scopic approach. The risks are much more minimal and they were confident they could get a great majority of the tumor. Mine was wrapped around my optic nerve on the right and up against the one on the left as well as partially wrapped around my carotid arteries. I ended up going to UPMC because the surgeon had done 2500 of those procedures last year and only did skull base tumors in this area of the brain. It’s important you see someone that does this type of procedure at least 100 times a year because there’s research showing if they do it more than 100 times per year the risks of surgery drop significantly he was able to get 95% of my tumor but did not get all of it off the internal carotid artery because did not want to risk bleeding to death or stroke.