Surgical treatment of extramedullary tumors of the craniovertebral junction (CVJ) remains a difficult task due to adjacent important neurovascular structures. International data indicate high incidence of postoperative complications following surgical intervention alone. Objective. To analyze postoperative complications following resection of CVJ extramedullary tumors. Material and methods. A retrospective study of treatment outcomes in 64 patients with CVJ tumors was performed between 2013 and 2024. Neurological status in pre- and postoperative period was assessed depending on location, histological variant of tumor and surgical approach. Surgical, neurological and somatic complications were specified. Results. Postoperative complications occurred in 23 (38%) patients. For meningiomas, complications occurred in 38.4% of cases, for schwannomas — in 23.5%, for neurofibromas — in 57.1% of cases. Lateral and median approaches had similar complication rates (35.7% and 33.3%, respectively). Surgical complications occurred in 11 (21.8%) patients, and infectious complications were the most common (meningitis in 6 (9.3%) patients). Neurological complications were detected in 13 (20.3%) patients, and dysfunction of bulbar nerves prevailed (7 (10.9%) patients). Somatic postoperative complications occurred in 8 (12.5%) patients, fatal outcomes — in 1 (1.5%) case. Conclusion. Our results demonstrate high incidence of postoperative complications after surgical treatment of extramedullary CVJ tumors.
Labzina et al. (2026) studied this question.