RESUMO
Objective: The objective of the study was to study the histological pattern of intracranial meningiomas; provide a comprehensive data about its frequency in both adults and children and to correlate the site of the tumour with histological diagnosis. Design: A descriptive study. Place and duration of study: The study was carried out at the departments of Histopathology and Morbid Anatomy; Muhimbili National Hospital and Neurosurgery; Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute in Tanzania; over a period of seven years (1998 to October 2004). Patients and methods :The histopathological data of 54 intracranial meningiomas of adults and children was evaluated on H et E stained sections of paraffin embedded tissue. Results: The ages ranged from 6 to 87 years with mean of 36.6 years. The male to female ratio was 1:1. All histological subtypes of meningiomas were in WHO grade I category and meningotheliomatous type comprised the largest subtype (37). Others were transitional (25.9); fibroblastic (22.2); angiomatous (7.4); psamommatous (5.6) and microcystic (1.9). Out of 54 meningiomas; 43 (79.6) were supratentorial and 11 (20.4) were infratentorial in location. Meningotheliomatous meningioma was the commonest histological subtype in supratentorial region (41.9) while in infratentorial region fibroblastic and transitional subtypes were the commonest (36.4each). Conclusion: All meningioma were in WHO grade I category and meningotheliomatous was the commonest overall and also the most predominant in the supratentorial region while in infratentorial location transitional and fibroblastic subtypes were the commonest with equal frequency. Meningioma gave an equal gender ratio in our study