Nasal endoscopic resection of extended intradural clival chordoma

Objective Clival chordoma with intradural extension is very difficult to manage mont.Primary experience of nasal endoscopic surgery for the extra-intra clival chordomas was reported. Methods Between 2007 and 2009,7 patients （4 males and 3 females,ages ranging from 8 to 62 years） with clival extra-intra dural chordoma underwent nasal endoscopic surgeries, 4 of them with combined transoral approach. Charts were reviewed for clinical characteristics, previous therapies, tumor extent, management modalities,complications, and outcome. Results Total resection of tumor was obtained in 6 cases and subtotal resection in one case. Postoperative follow-up period ranged from 3 to 25 months, median 22 months. One of 6 cases with total resection was recurrent and alive with disease. The patient with subtotal resection died secondary to progression of disease 10 months after the surgery. There was no intraoperative complication. Expect for one case of transient cerebral spinal fluid leakage, no postoperative complication was encountered. Conclusions Nasal endoscopic approach may provide a less invasive surgery for clival chordoma with intradural extension. It is safe and effective when it is performed by the surgeons with adequate experience and skills and perioperative managements were taken. Key words: Endoscopy; Chordoma; Skull base neoplasma