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. 2021 Oct;278(10):3643-3651.
doi: 10.1007/s00405-021-06627-6. Epub 2021 Feb 1.

Postoperative headache after surgical treatment of cerebellopontine angle tumors: a systematic review

Louis Pogoda  1 , Jelle S Nijdam  1 , Diederik P J Smeeing  2 , Eduard H J Voormolen  3 , Fuat Ziylan  4 , Hans G X M Thomeer  5   6
Affiliations

Postoperative headache after surgical treatment of cerebellopontine angle tumors: a systematic review

Louis Pogoda et al. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: Postoperative headache (POH) is a complication that occurs after surgical resection of cerebellopontine angle (CPA) tumors. The two most common surgical approaches are the translabyrinthine (TL), and retrosigmoid (RS) approach. The objective of this systematic review was to investigate whether POH occurs more frequently after RS compared to TL approaches.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted in Cochrane, Pubmed and Embase. Studies were included if POH after CPA tumor removal was reported and both surgical approaches were compared. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool.

Results: In total, 3,942 unique articles were screened by title and abstract. After the initial screening process 63 articles were screened for relevance to the inquiry, of which seven studies were included. Three studies found no significant difference between both surgical approaches (p = 0.871, p = 0.120, p = 0.592). Three other studies found a lower rate of POH in the TL group compared to the RS group (p = 0.019, p < 0.001, p < 0.001). Another study showed a significantly lower POH rate in the TL group after one and six months (p = 0.006), but not after 1 year (p = 0.6).

Conclusion: The results of this systematic review show some evidence of a lower rate of POH in favor of the TL approach versus the RS approach for CPA tumor resection. Prospective research studies are needed to further investigate this finding.

Keywords: Cerebellopontine angle tumors; Postoperative headache; Retrosigmoid approach; Surgical techniques; Translabyrinthine approach; Vestibular schwannoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of inclusion of relevant publications
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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