Intracranial chordoma and Its Surgical Treatment

Twenty-one patients with intracranial chordomas were reported. The tumors were classified into sellar region, middle fossa, posterior fossa and nasopharynx patterns based on their location, All patients with the exception of one whose cardiac funtion was rather poor were operated on via various approaches including retromastoid, extreme lateral suboccipital, anterior basal, sphenoidal, oral, subtemporal, etc. The tumors were removed totally in 5 cases, subtotal or largely partial in 11, and partial in 3. Only biopsy was performed in one patient. No death occurred. The classification, diagnosis and treatment were discussed. The surgical approaches and techniques were described.