During the last few years stereotactic radiosurgery has become a partner of equal rank within the discipline of neurosurgery. Today it is regarded as being of the same importance as microsurgery and endovascular neurosurgery, branches which have also progressed rapidly in recent years. Breakthrough success, however, requires a combined effort of all partners involved. The editors have brought together leading experts in the fields of neurosurgery, neuroradiology, neurology, neuropathology, neuroanatomy, radiation oncology, and biophysics to discuss indications and therapeutic strategies in the treatment of arteriovenous malformations and intracranial tumors and to find a common basis for their future work.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Vienna School of Neurosurgery at the University of Vienna an international symposium on the anatomy, the approaches to, and the treatment of pathologic processes of the cranial midline, and on the results obtained, was held in Vienna in May 1990. This book contains selected papers on the diagnostics and therapy of processes of the cranial midline. The topics range from processes of the anterior cranial fossa via pterional approaches and processes of the cavernous sinus to lesions in the area of the pituitary, the third ventricle, the midbrain, and the posterior cranial fossa. Issues like approaches to the clivus, to the supratentorial and infra tentorial petro us bone and to the brain stem are addressed and techniques like stereotactic endoscopic interventions or the endovascular treatment of cerebral vascular malformations are discussed. The present book is intended to provide a survey of the complexity of cranio-cerebral processes of the cranial midline and their diagnostics and treatment and informs on the state of the art.