Meningiomas

Abstract

Intracranial meningiomas are one of the commoner intracranial tumours and arise from arachnoid, usually at sites of arachnoid granulations. Thus, the tumours tend to occur in certain defined areas. There is broad agreement that the primary treatment is surgical, not least because these mostly slow growing tumours are usually too big for Gamma Knife surgery, at the time of presentation. Their slow growth permits considerable compensation for their presence, so that they often only give rise to symptoms when they are very large. Meningiomas are peculiar tumours. They do not metastasise outside the skull but they consistently show one of the classic signs of malignancy: they grow across tissue boundaries, to involve dura and bone. Nonetheless, their biological behaviour, despite their pattern of spread is usually benign.