Stereotactic laser interstitial thermal therapy for brainstem cavernous malformations: two preliminary cases

Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Posterior Fossa Lesions: A Systematic Review and Analysis of Multi-Institutional Outcomes

“…A total of 150 patients with a mean age of 56.47 years had undergone LITT for posterior fossa tumors between 2014 and 2021 ( Table 1 ) [ 11 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Of these patients, 76.1% were female and 23.9% were male.…”

“…Two studies did not report tumor volume, and they only reported the length and width of the tumor (cm 2 ), and since it was not possible to combine these data with the previous ones (cm 3 ), the tumor dimensions in these articles were not included in our mentioned calculations [ 19 , 21 ]. One study reported only the diameters of the lesions on posterior fossa and was also excluded in pre-LITT volume’s measurement [ 17 ]. Three studies reported pre- and postprocedural KPS scores, with a combined mean score of 90 pre-LITT and 80 post-LITT for 38 patients [ 12 , 14 , 15 ].…”

“…Morbidity and mortality data could be extracted for 131 of the 150 patients included in this study. Nine deaths (9/131) resulted from disease progression, treatment failure, or metastasis, and no death occurred from LITT treatment [ 11 , 25 ]; 103 patients had no procedural complications and showed stabilization of disease at the time of last follow-up, which ranged from 2 to 24 months [ 11 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 23 , 25 ]; and 19 patients developed intra- or postoperative complications, including transient and permanent neurologic deficits [ 11 , 12 , 14 , 21 , 23 , 25 ]. Procedure-related complications, usually including new neurologic deficits, occurred in approximately 14.5% (19/131) of the pooled sample.…”

“…With the exception of the last case, which developed diplopia secondary to Abducens’ palsy [ 21 ], none of the aforementioned studies developed post-LITT complications [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Gamboa et al reported MR-thermography-guided LITT for 2 brainstem cavernous malformations [ 17 ]. Both patients demonstrated remarkable symptomatic improvement and were hemorrhage-free at 12- and 6-month follow-up, respectively.…”

Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Cavernous Malformations: A Systematic Review

“…Most of the procedures took place in adult patients with a mean age of 34.8 years. The characteristics of the patients are illustrated in Table 1 (2,4,11,(17)(18)(19). Except for one patient, who sought early intervention to terminate antiepileptic medicines, the existence of a cerebral CM producing drug resistant seizures was an indication for surgery in Willie at al.…”