No abstract

High pressure lumbar air insufflation and endoscopical surgical technique and control improve surgical results and widen indications for the transsphenoidal approach to pituitary adenomas. These complementary methods require a sitting position for the patient and an axial approach to the sella turcica. By lumbar high pressure insufflation even very big pituitary adenomas may often be brought into the operation field and make possible a complete extirpation by a transsphenoidal approach. This possibility is increased by an operative technique under endoscopic control, the latter contributing considerably to complete tumour extirpation, especially with endocrine-active tumours.

Maffucci's syndrome is characterized by the combination of multiple enchondromas (Ollier's disease) and hemangiomatosis. These hemangiomas develop in the subcutaneous tissue and form red-blue tumors dispersed over the whole body. Intracranial involvement is rare, making a preoperative radiological diagnosis and differentiation from other tumors rather difficult. The radiological characteristics and successful removal of the intracranial part of a chondrosarcoma of the cerebellopontine angle in a case of Maffucci's syndrome are reported in this paper.

We describe in detail one case, and briefly mention another where occlusion of a main vessel was necessary for removal of an aneurysm sac. The combined surgery of extracranial-intracranial bypass and the removal of the aneurysm at a second operation four to five weeks later is reported. The two-stage procedure is preferable to the one-stage proceeding for better assessment of the patency of the anastomosis and the possibility of undertaking a second attempt at anastomosis if the first bypass should become occluded.

Maffucci's syndrome is characterized by the combination of multiple enchondromas (Ollier's disease) and hemangiomatosis. These hemangiomas develop in the subcutaneous tissue and form red-blue tumors dispersed over the whole body. Intracranial involvement is rare, making a preoperative radiological diagnosis and differentiation from other tumors rather difficult. The radiological characteristics and successful removal of the intracranial part of a chondrosarcoma of the cerebellopontine angle in a case of Maffucci's syndrome are reported in this paper.