Skull Base Tumours
Complex tumours at the base of the skull — benign and malignant — requiring specialist surgical expertise.
What are Skull Base Tumours?
Skull base tumours arise at the anatomical junction between the head and neck — affecting the sinuses, nasal cavity, orbit, infratemporal fossa, and cranial base. They are rare, complex, and require specialist surgical teams combining head and neck surgery with neurosurgery.
Skull base tumours may be benign (meningiomas, angiofibromas, paragangliomas) or malignant (sinonasal cancers, adenoid cystic carcinoma with skull base involvement). Even benign tumours can be life-threatening due to their location adjacent to critical nerves and blood vessels.
Types of Skull Base Tumours
Sinonasal malignancies — cancers of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, including squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma (often related to wood dust exposure), and olfactory neuroblastoma.
Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (JNA) — a highly vascular benign tumour in adolescent males. Despite being benign, it can cause significant bleeding and requires careful surgical planning.
Paragangliomas — rare tumours arising from neural crest cells. May be functional (secreting catecholamines) or non-functional. Require specialist management.
Meningiomas — arising from the meninges covering the brain and skull base. May involve the anterior skull base and orbit.
Symptoms
Symptoms depend on the location and extent of the tumour — nasal obstruction and bleeding for sinonasal tumours, visual changes for orbital involvement, cranial nerve palsies (facial numbness, double vision, facial weakness) for more extensive lesions, and headache for intracranial extension.
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Dr. Narayana Subramaniam
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