Condition
Meningioma
Treatments
Surgical Resection
Treatment for meningioma is usually surgical resection, which means cutting out the lesion. Most meningiomas are diagnosed once they start to cause symptoms by pushing on the surrounding brain or nerves.
More often than not, the symptoms improve and completely resolve once the meningioma is removed. Other meningiomas are diagnosed before causing symptoms, usually when a scan is done for another reason, and the meningioma is found by accident.
In this case, the meningioma can be watched to judge its growth rate or can be resected before it gets big enough to cause symptoms.
Gamma Knife
Other times, meningiomas can be treated with Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery. During this procedure, the patient is placed into a machine that looks very similar to a CT scanner. No incision or surgery is needed.
Over about an hour, a highly targeted dose of radiation is delivered to the meningioma, and the patient then goes home immediately after the procedure is completed. This single treatment can limit the growth of the meningioma, and sometimes, will even cause it to shrink in size.
Case Study - 40 year old
A 40 year old woman had seizures for the first time while she was 35 weeks pregnant. An MRI showed a large meningioma pushing on the parts of her brain that control the ability to move and feel the left side of her body.
After controlling the seizures with medication, we chose to remove the tumor with surgery. The surgery went smoothly. She was home taking care of her newborn two days after surgery, and years later she is seizure free and the tumor remains completely gone.


Case Study - 53 year old
A 53 year old woman started having new headaches and pain behind her right eye. An MRI showed a large meningioma growing from the base of the skull, wrapped around her right internal carotid artery, and pushing on the nerves going to her right eye.
The entire tumor was able to be removed with surgery, and she amazingly went home after just four days in the hospital. After surgery she had resolution of her headaches and eye pain, and was back to skiing within three months.


Case Study - 63 year old
A 63 year old woman had opted to observe a meningioma arising from the base of the skull, just above her nose. Over the course of 10 years, the tumor continued to grow.
Treatment options were considered and the patient desired to avoid surgery, therefore gamma knife treatment was performed. This was a one time treatment that took about 90 minutes, and she went home immediately after.
Follow up imaging one year after treatment show shrinking in size of the meningioma

