Meningiomas Involving the Temporal Bone: Clinical and Pathological Aspects

There are four sites of predilection for meningiomas within the temporal bone, and these are precisely the four areas which arachnoidal cell clusters are normally encountered: within the internal acoustic meatus, within the jugular foramen, in the region of the geniculate ganglion, and in the sulcus of the greater and lesser superficial petrosal nerves. Meningiomas invading the temporal bone may also arise from the anterior and posterior surfaces of the petrous bone. Although these last sites give rise to 1.5% of all brain tumors, invasion is relatively rare, so that Nager was able to find only 30 literature references to meningiomas invading the temporal bone. He adds seven cases (three surviving patients, four instances from serially sectioned temporal bones). The importance of these rare tumors is manifold: they have been mistaken for glomus tumors when they have spread into the neck or into the middle ear, they may seem to