Occipital Transtentorial Approach for Posterior Cranial Fossa Tumors

Introduction: Occipital transtentorial (OTT) approach is widely known as an approach to the pineal region. A few studies have described operations by OTT approach for accessing cerebellar lesions. We performed OTT approach to posterior cranial fossa tumors, especially anterosuperior regions.

Methods: Seven patients with posterior fossa tumors underwent operations using OTT approach.

Results: Tumors were three hamangioblastomas, two meningiomas, two metastatic tumors. All tumors were removed totally by this approach. With this approach, we gained excellent results without any intraoperative complications and severe morbidity.

Conclusion: This approach allows for excellent exposure of posterior cranial fossa tumors, as well as pineal tumors. It may be safely used in properly selected patients. We suggest that this approach is useful in anterosuperior cerebellar tumors, especially when superior cerebellar artery is feeder or tentorium is high-riding.