The Role of Transbasal Approach for Anterior Skull Base Tumors with Acute Visual Impairment

Abstract

Introduction: As visual impairment is a common presentation of the parasellar tumors, the tumors located in the anterior skull base and craniofacial structures invading the optic canals (OCs) occasionally result in acute visual impairment from optic nerve compression. Our surgical policies in the management of these kinds of tumors extending into OCs are (1) avoiding disfiguring facial bone and skin incisions cosmetically, (2) selecting the appropriate surgical approaches to achieve the maximum safe resection of the tumor around the impaired optic nerve, and (3) employing the additional approach under making it difficult to achieve the enough resection by single surgical approach. We review our treatment experience with the above surgical strategy for the skull base tumors invading OCs with acute visual impairment, and discuss surgical approaches and patient outcomes.