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Meningiomas
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
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Meningiomas are benign tumors of the meninges that can compress adjacent brain tissue. Symptoms of meningiomas depend on the location of the tumor. Diagnosis is made using MRI with a contrast agent.
Treatment of meningioma includes excision, stereotactic radiosurgery, and sometimes radiation therapy.
[ Epidemiology
Meningiomas, especially those less than 2 cm in diameter, are the most common intracranial tumors. Meningioma is the only brain tumor that is more common in women. A benign tumor that occurs between the ages of 40 and 60 (sometimes in childhood), it can develop anywhere in the dura mater, most often over the convexital surface adjacent to the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital bones of the skull near the venous sinuses, along the base of the skull, in the posterior cranial fossa, and less often in the ventricles; there are multiple lesions.
Symptoms meningiomas
Symptoms of meningiomas are determined by the location of the tumor. Midline tumors in the elderly can cause dementia with the appearance of minor focal symptoms.
Complications and consequences
Diagnostics meningiomas
Diagnostic procedures, as for other brain tumors, usually include MRI with paramagnetic contrast. Bone pathology (eg, hyperostosis along the convexital surface of the brain, changes in the sella turcica) may be detected as an incidental finding on CT or skull radiograph.
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Treatment meningiomas
The progression of asymptomatic meningiomas can be monitored by the dynamics of the results of repeated neuroimaging studies. Symptomatic and growing meningiomas should be excised whenever possible. If they are large, grow into blood vessels (usually adjacent veins), or are located near vital areas (e.g., the brainstem), then surgery may be more dangerous than the tumor. Stereotactic radiosurgery is used for surgically inaccessible meningiomas, as well as for incomplete tumor excision or in elderly patients. If stereotactic radiosurgery is not possible and if the meningioma recurs, radiation therapy is used.