Endoscopic surgery provides a less invasive and highly visual approach to skull base tumors and can reduce morbidity compared with open surgery, according to the experts interviewed for this article. While the role of endoscopy continues to evolve as surgeons treat increasingly larger and more difficult skull base lesions, a number of contraindications and precautions need to be kept in mind.
Explore this issue:
November 2007An Evolution
Endoscopic skull base surgery has evolved from endoscopic sinus surgery, explained Brendan Stack, MD, Vice Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, and Director of the Divisions of Head and Neck Oncology and Clinical Research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
“It’s gone from taking care of sinus disease, to repairing brain fluid leaks, to removing small benign lesions in the skull base, to removing increasingly larger benign lesions, as well as many malignant lesions,” he said.