Subperiosteal, subperiorbital dissection and division of the anterior and posterior ethmoid arteries for meningiomas of the cribriform plate and planum sphenoidale: technical note.

Removal of meningiomas from the region of the cribriform plate and the planum sphenoidale may entail a bifrontal craniotomy and an interruption of the tumor's blood supply along the floor of the anterior cranial base. However, with this approach, the presence of bulky tumor above makes it difficult to control bleeding from multiple bony foramina in the anterior cranial base and to expose these foramina. The blood supply to the dura in this region, and, therefore, to these tumors, is predominantly from the anterior and posterior ethmoid arteries. Preoperative embolization of ethmoid arteries is not without a significant and prohibitive risk of blindness. A frontoethmoidal approach to the arteries on both sides requires two separate skin incisions. Therefore, a subperiosteal, subperiorbital dissection and division of these arteries via a bicoronal skin incision is a practical alternative.