Meningioma
What is a meningioma?
Meningiomas are the most commonly found brain tumours,
which are normally benign. Very rarely they can
be malignant and can sometimes be found in multiple
locations in the skull. Many of them are localised at the base of
the skull.
What are the symptoms of a meningioma?
Meningiomas cause symptoms by pressing on the brain or other
nervous structures. Therefore symptoms will directly relate to
whichever neighbouring structures are compressed. Headache can be a
general and sometimes the only symptom. Even small tumours can
result in symptoms by producing swelling in the surrounding brain
tissue such as a epileptic seizure.
How are meningiomas diagnosed?
Diagnosing a meningioma is usually easy. The best imaging study
for this purpose is MRI but CT also produces excellent results.
What is the treatment for meningiomas?
Meningiomas should, when growing in an accessible location, be
removed by microsurgical techniques. Most often this can be done
radically to provide a cure. Some meningiomas, especially those in
the skull base area, are difficult to resect completely without
causing damage to other parts of the brain resulting in injury
to the patient. In these cases Gamma Knife surgery has been
proven to be an excellent adjunctive treatment.
Further infomation on meningiomas
Please contact the Gamma Knife Centre directly or go to
Brain Tumour UK