A 26-year-old man was admitted for recurrent headaches, loss of vision in his left eye, and elevated blood pressure. His loss of sight had been gradual, manifesting for over six months before hospitalization. He also exhibited episodes of inadequate behavior with some aggression. The patient was conscious at admission, and no other meningeal or focal neurological symptoms were found. The patient consented to publication of his protected health information.\nHis right and left eyes had logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution visual acuities of 1.0 and 0.2, respectively. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a hyperintense signal mass lesion occupying his chiasm and left ON (Figure ). These findings led to a diagnosis of high-grade glioma of the chiasm and left ON, or CM.\nSurgery was performed with the patient in the supine position, with his head slightly elevated and turned to the right side about 30 degrees. A left frontolateral craniotomy was performed to optimize the approach to the chiasm and left ON. Fenestration of the basal cistern and aspiration of cerebrospinal fluid yielded a relaxed brain with satisfactory gravity retraction. The left optic canal was unroofed, and several blood clots at different stages of resorption were evacuated through the longitudinal dissection of the ON. Minimal coagulation currents were applied to occlude the feeding vessels with their sharp sections. Resection was estimated to be gross total (Video ).\nThere were no surgical complications, and MRI performed six months later showed no signs of CM recurrence (Figure ). The patient was discharged after seven days, and his vision returned to normal three months later. He is still in touch with us and has reported no signs of visual deterioration or recurrent bleeding.\nThe microscopic structure of the resected CM with heterochromous thromboses is shown in Figure .
A 53-year-old woman was admitted to our institution complaining of a mild fever, severe headache, and progressive visual loss that had started 4 days before. On admission, the general condition of the patient and the results of the gross neurological examination were unremarkable. Goldmann perimetry testing showed bitemporal hemianopsia. Her visual acuity was 20/400 in the right and 20/200 in the left eye. A computed tomography scan showed a hyperdense, hemorrhagic mass measuring approximately 2.5 cm in diameter in the suprasellar region []. A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging scan [ and ] better outlined the mass: it affected both the pituitary stalk and the hypothalamus while reaching cranially the left Monro foramen and compressing the optic nerves and chiasm, a clear signal of an ongoing edema. Cerebral angiography showed no vascular malformation. The results of routine blood and serum examinations were normal. Endocrinological studies of the pituitary function were unremarkable. After 3 days, the patient underwent a gross-total resection of the lesion through an extended endoscopic, endonasal, transsphenoidal route. The resection of the lesion was combined with the opening of the third ventricle through the lamina terminalis. A careful reconstruction of the skull base was performed, with abdominal fat, nasal septal flap, and fibrin glue. After the operation, the visual symptoms improved immediately. On discharge, visual acuity was 20/50 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left eye. The patient had a transient incomplete hypopituitarism and mild diplopia which improved after few weeks. After 1 month, the neurological examination was unremarkable. Postoperative MR scan is showed in and . Histological findings confirmed the presence of a CM, showing hemosiderin, reactive fibrohistiocytic, ectatic vascular channels, and dilated cavernous spaces. On immunohistochemistry, the lesion was positive for CD34 staining, marker for endothelial lining, and was negative for elastin staining, thus ruling out an arteriovenous malformation. See showing the main steps of the endoscopic surgery.\nThe PubMed search engine () was used to perform an internet Medline literature research based on the following keywords “chiasma,” “optic,” “sovrasellar,” “CM,” “endoscopic,” and “transsphenoidal” with different combination. There were no limitations as to the timeframe, language, and publication type on the search process. We also cross-checked the references of the articles retrieved by looking for further papers of potential interest.