Contents:
- Medical Video: Brain Tumors: Frequently Asked Questions | Jon Weingart, M.D.
- Who can get meningioma?
- What are the symptoms of meningioma?
- Check that needs to be done
- Get to know the stage in meningioma
- What kind of treatment can be done?
Medical Video: Brain Tumors: Frequently Asked Questions | Jon Weingart, M.D.
Maybe you are not familiar with meningioma disease. Meningioma is one of the most common types of brain tumors. Unlike other brain tumors, meningioma often causes impaired vision because of the position of the tumor close to the visual nerve. Let's get to know more about meningioma.
Who can get meningioma?
Meningioma is the most common brain tumor, mostly affecting women aged 50 years and over. But that does not mean that only those age groups can experience this disease.
As many as 60 percent of people who experience meningioma, are known to also have a disruption in their genes. While the environmental effects of this disease are still uncertain and should be investigated further. So, anyone can actually suffer from meningioma, only based on the results of the study.
For this reason, further research is needed regarding this brain tumor disease.
What are the symptoms of meningioma?
Meningioma is a brain tumor that usually does not cause any symptoms when it is still in its early stages. The size of the tumor will increase by about one to three millimeters per year.
Because it is close to the nerves in the eye, enlarged tumors will suppress the visual nerve and cause some vision to disappear. If it's getting bigger, it's not impossible that the nerves in the eye will be damaged and eventually make the ability of vision disappear.
If the tumor has been pushed into the eye socket, the tumor can cause the eyes to protrude. Generally this protrusion only occurs in one eye.
In addition, interference can also occur from the movement of the eyeball, pressing into the nasal cavity, and causing a decrease in smell.
Check that needs to be done
Perimetry is an examination that will be done first when you come with a complaint of a partial decrease in vision.
During the inspection process you will be asked to look at a specific point on the tool and press a special button when you see the light. The results of the examination will help to ensure and determine the position of the loss of some of your vision.
If your ophthalmologist has a suspicion of a tumor in the brain, several additional examinations are needed, namely:
- CT scan with or without contrast to determine the exact location and size of the tumor.
- MRI has a role similar to CT scans.
Get to know the stage in meningioma
Some stages that are known when a person has meningioma are:
- Stage 1 is categorized as a benign brain tumor.
- Stage 2 is a transition stage, the cell no longer shows a picture as a benign cell but cannot yet be categorized as a malignant cell.
- Stage 3 is classified as a malignant brain tumor
90 percent of patients generally are in stage 1, while the remaining 10 percent are divided into stages 2 and 3.
What kind of treatment can be done?
Treatment that can be done to treat meningioma is:
- Surgical removal of the tumor. Surgery will help reduce the effect of suppression on the visual nerve and also to examine cells from the tumor so that the stage of the disease can be determined.
- Radiotherapy. This action can be performed on patients who cannot undergo surgery. In some cases radiotherapy is also carried out simultaneously with surgery.
