Combined Multiportal Endoscopic Endonasal and Transcranial Approach for Recurrent Tuberculum Sellae Meningioma: Operative Video

Surgery for anterior cranial base lesions is challenging because tumors often spread from their origin to sinuses, orbits, and middle cranial fossa, resulting in risky surgeries.1,2 To approach such complex diseases, recently combined multiportal approaches have been proposed.3,4 At the best of our knowledge, operative application of a combined endoscopic endonasal and transcranial surgery for complex anterior cranial base lesions has not been described. Therefore a surgical video of such an approach is presented. A 37-year-old woman affected by a huge recurrence of a tuberculum meningioma extended to right orbit presented to our department, complaining of right ocular bulb dislocation with multidirectional limitations in eye movements (Video 1). Given the complexity and localization of the lesion, a combined endoscopic endonasal–transcranial surgery was performed. Such a combined approach, although demanding in terms of the presence of both otolaryngologist and neurosurgeon during the surgery, also requires strong synergy among them and permits them to control anterior cranial base lesions from both specialists' perspectives, simultaneously. In this case, while an endonasal corridor permitted an accurate excision of ethmoidal and medial orbital wall part of the lesion, a bicoronal approach allowed the aggression of the anterior cranial base portion of the tumor, allowing good control of cranial base neurovascular structures, eventually obtaining a gross total resection, without perioperative complications. Furthermore, a combined multiportal approach allows cooperative strategies among the surgeons involved, leading to safer, quicker, and more effective resections with less brain retraction, given the wide angles of views to the lesion that a multiportal approach can offer.