Primary posterior fossa tumours in adult patients.

Surgery within posterior fossa tumours aided by modern imaging techniques, operating microscope and surgical technique, has progressed rapidly. In fact, operations once impossible to perform safely are now routine. Current surgical techniques are also leading to more complete tumour resections, thereby prolonging survival times and, for benign tumours, lowering recurrence rates. Regardless of the quality of technological advances, excellent results are still primarily dependent on a highly skilled neurosurgical team as well as on a special neurosurgical intensive care unit. Complications, although never totally avoided, are by far better prevented than treated. That prevention starts with the preoperative evaluation and continues well into the period of postoperative care.