Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of patients who underwent craniofacial resection for tumour in the anterior skull base at the University of Hong Kong Medical Centre, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong between January 1993 and June 2003.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted. The duration of follow up ranged from 1.7 to 119 months (median, 41.8 months). The setting was a tertiary referral centre. Thirty-nine patients, 23 males and 16 females, aged 8-79 years were included. Thirty-four patients had malignant tumour and five patients had benign pathology. The tumour pathology was diversified. Nineteen patients had no treatment before the surgery, and the remaining 20 patients had received surgery, radiotherapy or combined treatment before resection. Patients were given postoperative irradiation and/or chemotherapy depending on the pathology of the tumour and the extent of the disease and clearance at the time of surgery.
Results: There was no operative mortality. Complications occurred in 10 patients and among them, three required reoperation. The other complications were managed successfully with conservative measures. The 5-year actuarial disease-free survival for patients with benign and malignant pathology was 100 and 77.6%, respectively. For patients with malignant pathology, 5-year actuarial disease-free survival was 90% when the resection margin was negative at surgery. However, the survival dropped to 53.6% when the resection margin was involved macroscopically.
Conclusion: Craniofacial resection was an appropriate surgical approach with acceptable morbidity in selected patients with tumour located at the anterior skull base. Complete excision of malignant tumour could achieve 90% 5-year disease-free actuarial survival.