Role of brachytherapy in the management of the skull base meningioma. Treatment of skull base meningiomas.

Background. The treatment of primary and recurrent skull base meningiomas presents a formidable surgical problem. Methods. Fifteen patients with primary and recurrent skull base meningiomas were treated by means of interstitial irradiation with iodine 125 ( 125 I) seed implantation. The physical characteristics of 125 I enabled the authors to administer a minimum tumor dose ranging from 100 to 500 Gy at a low dose rate of 0.05-0.25 Gy per hour. Results. All 15 patients are alive at a median followup of 29 months. Of the 15 patients, 2 with calcification and 2 without calcification achieved only partial responses. The remaining 11 patients achieved a complete response. No early or late complications were observed