Association of intracranial meningiomas and aneurysms. Report of three cases and review of the literature.

The Authors report three personal cases of association between meningioma and arterial aneurysm, both intracranial. Twenty-three similar cases are referred in the literature, bringing the total to 26. Of these 26, the overall average age at diagnosis was 48.3 years: 17 were females and 9 males. The predominant site for the meningioma was the cerebral convexity and for the aneurysm the anterior communicating artery. Meningiomas were multiple in 5 cases and the aneurysms were multiple in the same number of cases. In 21 cases the meningioma was removed: in 11 of these the aneurysm was treated simultaneously. In the majority of cases the aneurysm was an accidental finding during neuroradiological investigation to document the meningioma; panangiography is reported to have been performed only in a few cases. Greater use of the latter would probably have revealed a higher incidence of this rare association. The greater frequency found of the association of aneurysm and multiple meningiomas makes it advisable to perform panangiography in all such cases. The best long-term results were obtained in the cases where the meningioma and aneurysm were operated simultaneously.