Our first skull base tumor removal surgery was successful

On September 21, our neurosurgery department performed the first case of skull base tumor resection, and the operation was successful. On the sixth day after the operation, when Director Wang Qinghe checked the room, patient Wang Da-am said, “Thank you so much, I can finally get a peaceful sleep.” Wang, a woman from Changping District, has been suffering from numbness and pain on the right side of her face for nearly one month. She had visited many hospitals without success and heard that our neurosurgery department had been opened and the physicians were all from well-known tertiary hospitals in China, so she came to our hospital half a month ago. After careful study, the neurosurgery team decided to perform frontotemporal transzygomatic arch approach skull base tumor resection on him. Skull base tumor resection is a severe test for neurosurgeons, and the cavernous sinus area located in the center of skull base discourages many neurosurgeons because of its complex neurological and vascular anatomical structure, which is second only to the brainstem known as the “forbidden area”. After surgery, it can cause eye movement disorder, diplopia, photophobia, facial numbness and chewing weakness. Because the blood supply in the cavernous sinus area is very rich and the sinus cavity is very large, once the rupture is completely without the normal vascular contraction function, the patient is very likely to be life-threatening due to hemorrhage. After careful preoperative preparation, the surgery was finally performed as scheduled. During the nearly 6-hour operation, with the strong support of experts from Tiantan Hospital, close monitoring by anesthesiologists and skillful cooperation of nurses in the operating room, the tumor was finally removed completely. After the operation, the bone flap of about 3×4 cm and the zygomatic arch were completely reset, with only 100 ml of intraoperative bleeding and intact protection of neurovascular structures. With postoperative treatment and careful care, Wang was able to get out of bed 4 days after surgery and her symptoms improved significantly. In her own words, she was finally relieved after the surgery and no longer worried about the risk of paralysis and death after the tumor growth.