Multiple intracranial meningiomas: diagnosis, biological behavior and treatment.

UNLABELLED Multiple intracranial meningiomas (MIM) are a rare pathology when not associated with neurofibromatosis. The prevalence rate of those tumors varied from 2.3 to 8.9% of all intracranial meningiomas. OBJECTIVE To present, analyze and discuss the cases of seven patients diagnosed with multiple intracranial meningiomas, describing their clinical and histological characteristics, as well as their biological behavior. METHOD The patients records, surgical descriptions, imaging studies and the histopathological exams were retrospectively reviewed. This is the largest series of MIM publisted in Brazil. RESULTS This sample consists of five women and two men. The age varied from 42 to 84 (average 53.8). Twenty-two meningiomas were identified and varied from 1.5 to 192 cm(3), with an 62.8 cm(3) average volume. The number of procedures varied from 1 to 5 per patient. No surgical death occurred in this series. CONCLUSION Despite the multiplicity of tumors, number of recurrences, the new tumors, repeated operations and re-operations, radiotherapy and a number of postoperative complications, the patients experienced a long survival in conjunction with a fairly good quality of life.