Endovascular Management of Brain Tumors: What’s in the Future?

Pp: 179-210 (32)

* (Excluding Mailing and Handling)

Abstract

Neuroendovascular techniques have evolved rapidly during the last decades extending the range of treatment options available for neuroendovascular surgeons and creating new applications other than those in the field of cerebrovascular diseases. Endovascular approaches for the management of head and neck tumors date back to the 1970s when the French surgeon Manelfe described the first pre-surgical embolization for an intracranial meningioma. Thereafter, indications for such treatment widened to other intracranial hypervascular tumors such as hemangiopericytomas and hemangioblastomas or extra/intracranial neoplasms including paragangliomas and juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibromas. Moreover, the possibility of reaching specific regions of the brain via the endovascular route made intra-arterial chemotherapy for brain tumors feasible, mitigating complications related to systemic exposure to toxic drugs. The indications, outcomes and complications of these relatively new techniques are discussed in depth.

Keywords: Dangerous anastomoses, embolization, endovascular, head and neck tumors, hemangioblastomas, hemangiopericytomas, intracranial meningiomas, juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibromas, paragangliomas.