Recognizing meningioma, a brain tumor that attacks the nerves of the eye

Maybe you are not familiar with meningioma. Meningioma is one of the most common types of brain tumors. Unlike other brain tumors, meningiomas often cause visual disturbances due to their position in close proximity to the visual nerve. Let's get to know more about meningioma.

Who gets meningioma?

Meningioma is the most common brain tumor, mostly affecting women aged 50 years and over. However, that does not mean that only this age group can experience this disease.

As many as 60 percent of people who have meningioma, are also known to have disorders in their genes. While the environmental effects on this disease are still not known with certainty and should be investigated further. So, anyone can actually suffer from meningioma, it's just based on research results.

For that, further research is needed related to this brain tumor.

What are the symptoms of meningioma?

Meningioma is a brain tumor that usually does not cause any symptoms in its early stages. The tumor will increase in size by about one to three millimeters per year.

Because it is close to the nerve in the eye, an enlarged tumor will press on the visual nerve and cause part of the vision to be lost. If it gets bigger, it is not impossible that the nerves in the eye will be damaged and eventually make vision loss.

If the tumor has pushed into the eye socket, it can cause the eye to appear protruding out. Generally, this protrusion only occurs in one eye.

In addition, there can also be interference from the movement of the eyeball, pushing it into the nasal cavity, and causing a decrease in smell.

Checks that need to be done

Perimetry is an examination that will be carried out first when you come complaining of a partial decrease in vision.

During the inspection process you will be asked to look at a specific point on the instrument and press a special button when you see a light. The results of the examination will help to ascertain and determine the position of the loss of part 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 that of a CT scan.

Know the stage of the meningioma

Some of the stages that are known when a person has meningioma are:

• Stage 1 is categorized as a benign brain tumor.
• Stage 2 is a transitional stage, the cells no longer show the picture as benign cells but cannot be categorized as malignant cells.
• Stage 3 is classified as a malignant brain tumor

90 percent of sufferers are generally at 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 tumors. Surgery will help reduce the effect of compression on the visual nerve and also to examine cells for tumors 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 performed at the same time as surgery.