Transnasal transcranial resection of nasocranial penetrating hemangioepithelioma

       The patient, a male from Anhui province, had a nasal tumor discovered for more than 2 years and had undergone transnasal tumor resection in an outside hospital. One year after the operation, a recurrence was found in the nasal cavity, with a tendency to grow intracranially. However, he was not treated actively. After another 1 year, he came to our hospital in order to seek a radical cure. After I admitted him to the hospital, our department operated jointly with neurosurgery and obtained satisfactory results. The otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgeon removed the tumor at the top of the nasal cavity via nasal endoscopy and cut off the tumor-nourishing blood vessel there. The vessel was clearly observed during the operation, and it entered the nasal cavity from the right orbit. We controlled this vessel to set the stage for further bloodless resection of the tumor by the neurosurgeon. The bone plate in the nasal cavity near the skull base, where the tumor invaded, was further removed. This was followed by reconstruction of the skull base. In the second step, the neurosurgeon opened the skull and removed the intracranial tumor. The patient was discharged from the hospital 2 weeks after surgery. Postoperative MRI showed complete resection of the tumor. As in Figure 1, the tumor was located in the anterior skull base before surgery, and the tumor was communicating between the nose and skull, and the tumor had abundant blood flow. As in Figure 2, postoperative MRI showed that the tumor was resected cleanly.