Surgical treatment of skull base chordomas
The paper analyses the series of 220 observations of patients with cranial chordomas operated in Burdenko Neusurgical Institute (Moscow, Russia) since 1984 till 2007. Tumors were localized in sellar region (34.1%), clival region (32.3%), craniovertebral junction (27.3%); craniofacial chordomas were observed in 5.9% of cases, ectopias (without any connection with clivus and sphenoocipital junction)--in 0.5%. In most cases transnasal, retrosigmoid and pterional approaches were used for excision of the tumor. The paper emphasizes the problem of selection of surgical tactics, early and delayed postoperative results. 5-year survival rate was 62%, 10-year survival--47%.