Clinical study of head and neck tumor treated with skull base surgery

Abstract

Skull base surgery is a procedure for en-bloc resection of head and neck tumors which extend to the skull base area. We retrospectively analyzed 13 patients with head and neck tumors who underwent skull base surgery at our hospital from 2007 to 2014. Ten patients underwent frontal and/or front-temporal craniotomy and 3 patients underwent subtotal temporal bone resection. The 5-year disease specific survival (DSS) rates by the Kaplan-Meier method were 65% in frontal and front-orbital craniotomy and 100% in subtotal temporal bone resection. The 5-year DSS rates classified by histological findings were 100% in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and 33% in non-SCC (p=0.03). The positive surgical margin status and dural invasions were important factors of poor prognosis (p=0.02, p=0.07). Although patients with paranasal sinus or external ear SCCs were all recurrence cases, their postoperative courses were favorable. Paranasal sinus and external ear SCCs were good indicators for skull base surgery even in cases of recurrence after primary surgery or chemoradiotherapy, provided there is no intracranial invasion and the SCC is resectable with a free margin.