OBJECTIVEA retrospective review of seventeen patients who were operated through the maxillary swing approach was carried out to assess the efficacy of this approach in the management of tumors of the central and lateral cranial base.

METHODSFrom May 2000 to January 2005, 17 patients with primary or recurrent neoplasms involving the central cranial or lateral base underwent surgical resection via maxillary swing approach. Ten patients were male, and other seven patients were female, and age range was 7 to 58 years, with a mean age of 42. 6 years. Eight patients had tumors originally involving lateral cranial base, and nine patients had tumors originated from central cranial base. The pathology spectrum was very wide. Among them, five suffered from chordoma, two had rhabdomyosarcoma, two had squamous cell carcinoma, one had malignant fibrous histiocytoma, one had malignant melanoma, one had esthesioneuroblastoma, one had invaded hypophysoma, two had schwannoma, one had pleomorphic adenoma, and one had angiofibroma. Three patients had received previous surgery, two patients had previous radiation therapy and nine patients received postoperative radiotherapy.

RESULTSSixteen of all seventeen patients had oncologically complete resection, one had near-total resection. This group patients was followed up from 10 to 60 months, with a median follow-up time of 28 months. Two patients died 14 and 26 months after surgery respectively, as a result of local recurrence and metastasis. One patient defaulted follow-up at 12 months after operation, and the other 14 patients were alive at the time of analysis. Of the 12 malignant tumors, the 1-and 2-year survival rate were 91.67% and 72.92%, respectively. The facial wounds of all patients healed primarily, and there were no necrosis of the maxilla, damage of the temporal branch of the facial nerve, lower-lid ectropion, and facial deformity. Epiphora and facial hypoesthesia were detected in all patients. Four patients (23.5%) developed palatal fistula, ten patients developed serous otitis media (58.8%), and four patients developed a certain degree of trismus (23.5%). Cerebrospinal fluid leak occurred in two patients. They subsequently healed with conservative management.

CONCLUSIONSThe maxillary swing approach is a proven method for access to the central and lateral skull base with good exposure and acceptable morbidity. Complications and sequelae associated with this approach include facial scarring, transaction of the infraorbital nerve, impaired lacrimal drainage, eustachian tube dysfunction and serous otitis, palatal fistula, trismus etc. Some procedures should be performed for reducing the incidence and severity of complications in the maxillary swing approach.