[Remote prognosis in esthesioneuromas (apropos of 11 cases)].

Research was carried out into a group of 11 patients with tumours of the olfactory placode or aesthesioneuromas observed and treated by the authors (10 of them unpublished cases). The authors recall the histological characteristics which, theoretically, distinguish aesthesioneuroepithelioma from aesthesioneurocytoma and aesthesioneuroblastoma and the risk of mistaken interpretation due to confusion with other types of tumour. The following conclusions emerged from this research : 1) Aesthesioneuroma is indisputably a radiosensitive tumour as has been proved by the long-term cures obtained either by irradiation alone or by irradiation after incomplete surgery. 2) However it is exceptional for diagnosis to be made merely by intranasal biopsy. In all doubtful cases, surgical investigation is necessary. This requires a broad para-latero nasal approach route which is the only one affording accurate anatomical localisation of the lesions and complete ablation of the tumour including, where necessary, removal of the lamina cribrosa.