Neuropsychological outcomes after surgery for olfactory groove meningiomas

Background: In recent years, several studies have reported abnormal pre-and postoperative neuropsychological functioning in patients with meningiomas located in the prefrontal cortex (notably the ventromedial region).In the case of olfactory groove meningiomas, the tumor is in direct contact with the inferior aspect of the prefrontal cortex, a cortical region with crucial roles in decisionmaking, cognition and memory functions, potentially negatively impacting neuropsychological functions.Materials & Methods: We retrospectively compared pre-and postoperative neuropsychological testing of 17 patients undergoing surgical removal of olfactory groove meningiomas in our institution between January 2013 and December 2018.Neuropsychological results were obtained from the patients' medical history and normalized as z-scores of their respective cognitive functions.Results: Assessment of cognitive follow-up showed an important heterogeneity among patients.Preoperative cognitive impairment was observed in most patients, particularly in cognitive flexibility (mean z-score: -1.35).Immediate postoperative cognitive status showed an overall impairment in all domains of cognition, significant for the domains of attention (p¼0.0273) and flexibility (p¼0.0234).The late follow-up at one-year showed a trend towards general improvement, although, attention and flexibility remained impaired.Conclusion: Olfactory groove meningiomas impact pre-frontal cortex cognitive functions, particularly in the domain of cognitive flexibility.After an initial postoperative worsening, patients tend to improve in most aspects after one year, aside from cognitive flexibility and attention.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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