Anesthesia for Posterior Fossa Surgery

  • Maurice S. Albin
Chapter
Part of the Developments in Critical Care Medicine and Anesthesiology book series (DCCA, volume 28)

Abstract

Vital brain structures including the medulla, pons, cerebellum, lower cranial nerve nuclei and CSF outflow apertures are located within the posterior fossa. The pons and medulla contain the primary respiratory and cardiovascular centers, as well as major motor and sensory pathways. The relatively confined space of the posterior fossa may exaggerate the neurologic consequences of even small lesions, hemorrhage or edema in these vital brain areas. Surgical exploration of the posterior fossa may be required in a variety of circumstances including resection of tumors, obliteration of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), clipping of posterior circulation aneurysms, and evacuation of hematomas. Microvascular decompression of cranial nerves may be performed to relieve symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia (cranial nerve V), hemifacial spasm (cranial nerve VII), or glossopharyngeal neuralgia (cranial nerve X). In the pediatric age group, the posterior fossa is the most common location for brain tumors, which rank second only to leukemia as the most common malignancy of childhood (1). This is in contrast to adults, in which the majority of brain tumors are located in the supratentorium.

Keywords

Cranial Nerve Central Venous Pressure Posterior Fossa Pulmonary Capillary Wedge Pressure Cerebral Perfusion Pressure 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1993

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  • Maurice S. Albin

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