Transtemporal approach to the removal of a lateral pontine tumor.

This video demonstrates a very useful trajectory to a pontine lesion. A 68-year-old man presented with tongue numbness and weakness. The approach used was a transtemporal presigmoid retrolabyrinthine approach to enable an orthogonal trajectory to the lateral pons. Following the transtemporal opening, the root entry zone of the trigeminal nerve and the root exit zone of the facial nerve are identified. The lateral pons is incised to access the tumor, which upon histological analysis was found to be a metastasis. Excellent visualization of the lateral pons is achieved. The opening, relevant anatomy, and closure are illustrated. The video can be found here: http://youtu.be/vS5fCOY6vp8 .