Does general comorbidity impact the postoperative outcomes after surgery for large and giant petroclival meningiomas?

We assessed the role of the general condition of the patient in addition to usual anatomical reasoning to improve the prediction of personalized surgical risk for patients harboring a large and giant petroclival meningiomas. Single-center, retrospective observational study including adult patients surgically treated for a large and giant petroclival meningioma between January 2002 and October 2019 in a French tertiary neurosurgical skull-base center by one Neurosurgeon. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) histopathologically proven meningioma; (2) larger than 3 cm in diameter; (3) located within the upper two-thirds of the clivus, the inferior petrosal sinus, or the petrous apex around the trigeminal incisura, medial to the trigeminal nerve. Clinical and radiological characteristics were gathered preoperatively including ASA score, the modified frailty index, and the Charlson comorbidity index. Post-operative severe neurological and non-neurological complications were collected. A total of 102 patients harboring a large and giant petroclival meningioma were included. The rate of postoperative death was 3.0% related to a congestive heart failure (n = 1), a surgical site hematoma (n = 1), and an ischemic stroke (n = 1). A severe neurological impairment was found in 12.8% and a severe non-neurological morbidity was found in 4.0%. The overall rate of severe morbidity and mortality was 15.7% after large and giant petroclival meningioma surgery. The presence of brainstem peri-tumoral edema (adjusted OR, 4.83 [95% CI 1.84-7.52], p = 0.028) was independently associated with a history of postoperative severe neurological morbidity. Male gender (adjusted OR, 7.42 [95% CI 1.05-49.77], p = 0.044), major cardiovascular morbidity (adjusted OR, 9.5 [95% CI 1.05-86.72], p = 0.045), and an ASA score ≥ 2 (adjusted OR, 11.09 [95% CI 1.46-92.98], p = 0.038) were independently associated with a history of postoperative severe non-neurological morbidity. A modified frailty index ≥ 1 (adjusted OR, 3.13 [95% CI 1.07-9.93], p = 0.047) and a low neurosurgical experience (adjusted OR, 5.38 [95% CI 1.38-20.97], p = 0.007) were independently associated with a history of postoperative overall morbidity and mortality. Pre-operative cranial nerve deficits (adjusted OR, 4.77 [95% CI 1.02-23.31], p = 0.024) and gross total resection (adjusted OR, 10.72 [95% CI 1.72-66.90], p = 0.022) were independently associated with postoperative new cranial nerve deficits. This study suggests to add scores assessing the patient general condition in daily practice to improve the selection of patients eligible for surgery. Collaborative international multicenter studies will be necessary to confirm these results and allow their implementation in clinical routine.