The impact of resection of skull base tumor via an endoscopic endonasal approach on the visual function of vision impaired patients and the analysis of factors affecting their visual recovery / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To evaluate the visual outcomes of patients with visual impairment after resecting skull base tumor via an endoscopic endonasal approach, and to analyze the factors affecting visual recovery.@*Methods@#One hundred and fifty-three patients with skull base tumor who suffered from preoperative visual impairment from Skull Base Surgery Center of Xuanwu Hospital were operated through an endoscopic endonasal approach. Both preoperative and postoperative visual function outcomes as well as factors that might have affected their visual recovery were analyzed retrospectively by Chi square test and Logistic regression analysis.@*Results@#Complete resection was achieved in 85.6% of the patients using this technique. The rate of postoperative visual recovery in the female group (86.1%) was higher than that in the male group (73.9%), the benign group (90.2%) higher than the malignant group (20.0%), the group without optic atrophy (97.1%) higher than the one with (51.2%), and the acute group (96.6%) higher than the chronic group (80.0%). Significant differences were found between the abovementioned groups (χ2 value was 5.849, 87.860, 79.757, 4.745, respectively, all P<0.05). The degree of optic atrophy and the property of tumors were significantly associated with visual improvement after treatment (Wold χ2 value was 18.597 and 35.623, all P<0.001).@*Conclusions@#Our results indicate that endoscopic endonasal surgery shows its ability both to resect skull base tumors and to improve visual function in the majority of patients. The timing of treatment for patients suffered from preoperative visual impairment should be selected in early stage before optic atrophy occurs.