Disappearing cystic cerebellar medulloblastoma: the ghost tumour.
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A case of medulloblastoma, which disappeared following steroid administration and a single sitting of radiotherapy (8Gy) is presented. At surgical exploration tumour was not found, multiple biopsies were negative. Post operative CT scan too did not show the tumour. Five months later, tumour reappeared in left cerebellar lobe in cystic and solid form. Patient was reoperated and tumour was decompressed. The biopsy showed medulloblastoma. To our knowledge, medulloblastomas are not known to be completely responsive to either of these modalities. (+info)
Posterior fossa scintiangiography: documentation of genetic penetrance of von Hippel-Lindau syndrome in a clinically unaffected girl and her father.
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The 16-year-old clinically normal daughter of a patient with the von Hippel-Lindau syndrome demonstrated a vascular posterior fossa lesion on scintiangiography that failed detection in delayed images. Contrast arteriography corroborated the presence of a hemangioblastoma. Noninvasive demonstration of the genetic penetrance of this disorder offers its victims an opportunity for low morbidity early surgical cure of the associated brain lesions. (+info)
Posterior cranial fossa venous extradural haematoma: an uncommon form of intracranial injury.
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Extradural haematomas are commonly associated with direct trauma to the temporal bones of the cranium resulting in damage to the middle meningeal artery or its branches. A case is presented of an occipital skull fracture with venous sinus bleeding that resulted in a posterior cranial fossa extradural haematoma. Bleeding in this area, if unrecognised, may lead rapidly to respiratory arrest secondary to brainstem compression. The presence of significant trauma to the occiput should alert the attending clinician to the possibility of this uncommon but potentially fatal condition. (+info)
Clinical and surgical aspects of posterior fossa haemangioblastomata.
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A retrospective study has been carried out on 67 patients with posterior fossa haemangioblastomata. Clinical details are presented, and the problems of diagnosis discussed. A fresh definition of the von Hippel-Lindau complex is put forward. The results of surgery are good for patients with solitary and sporadic tumours. (+info)
Pathological and haematological aspects of posterior fossa haemangioblastomata.
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A retrospective study has been carried out on 67 patients harbouring 78 posterior fossa haemangioblastomata. The site, macroscopic nature, and histological features are described, and correlations sought with the degree of erythrocytosis in the peripheral blood. The problems of aetiology are discussed and a single hypothesis advanced. (+info)
A case report of inflammatory pseudotumor involving the clivus: CT and MR findings.
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The authors describe a rare case of inflammatory pseudotumor involving the clivus, where a soft tissue mass lesion, with extension into the prevertebral retropharyngeal space and the cavernous sinuses, was detected by CT and MRI. The mass resembled a malignant tumor or aggressive infectious lesion, and the final diagnosis of inflammatory pseudotumor was a diagnosis of exclusion, decided after histopathological examination. (+info)
Organizing posterior fossa hematomas simulating developmental cysts on prenatal imaging: report of 3 cases.
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OBJECTIVE: We encountered 3 organizing tentorial hematomas simulating posterior fossa lesions such as Dandy-Walker, dermoid, or arachnoid cysts. We sought to correlate the clinical and pathologic features that allow distinction of developmental cysts from hematomas in the posterior fossa on imaging. METHODS. Prenatal sonograms in all fetuses and fetal magnetic resonance scans in 2 of the 3 were reviewed. One case proceeding to term had serial imaging up to age 11 months. Two cases had complete neuropathologic evaluation after termination. Maternal records were reviewed. RESULTS: In each case, the ultrasonographic findings were reminiscent of a developmental cyst but with echogenic debris, a rim, or both. Magnetic resonance imaging suggested tentorial hemorrhage in 2, 1 also with falcine hemorrhage. Serial prenatal and postnatal imaging showed resolution in the surviving case. Pathologically, 2 fetuses had organizing tentorial hematomas causing brain displacement. Calcifications, white matter damage, germinal matrix hemorrhage, and brain stem necrosis were also present. One mother had von Willebrand disease. CONCLUSIONS: Tentorial hematomas, with or without maternal coagulopathy, should be considered in the prenatal ultrasonographic diagnosis of cystlike posterior fossa abnormalities containing echogenic material. Fetal magnetic resonance imaging can suggest blood products. Hypoxic-ischemic brain damage may be concurrent; however, resolution of the hematoma, with no apparent neurologic sequelae, can occur. (+info)
Traumatic basilar artery occlusion caused by a fracture of the clivus--case report.
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A 56-year-old man presented with a rare traumatic basilar artery occlusion caused by a fracture of the clivus. He fell from the height of 2 meters and immediately fell into a coma. Head computed tomography (CT) revealed an open depressed fracture, an acute epidural hematoma 1 cm thick in the left middle frontal fossa, and a longitudinal fracture of the clivus. Emergency removal of the hematoma was performed with cranioplasty. Head CT 8 hours 50 minutes after injury showed infarctions in the brain stem, cerebellum, and occipital lobes. Cerebral angiography revealed occlusion of the basilar artery in the middle part of the clivus. The patient died after 3 days. Autopsy revealed that the basilar artery was trapped in the clivus fracture site. Vertebrobasilar artery occlusion due to trapping in a clivus fracture has a very poor prognosis. Diagnosis is difficult and generally only confirmed at autopsy. Cerebral angiography is recommended in a patient in a deep coma without massive brain contusion at the early stage of head injury to identify the possibility of vertebrobasilar artery occlusion in a clivus fracture. (+info)