Neuroimaging and pathological findings in a child with cerebral sparganosis. Case report.

The authors report the case of a 6-year-old boy with cerebral sparganosis due to infection with a plerocercoid tapeworm larva of Spirometra mansoni. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an area of irregular long T2 signal in the right frontal lobe. When compared with images obtained 2 years earlier, the lesion appeared to have migrated into the parietal lobe. During surgery for the removal of a granuloma, the parasite was discovered and excised. Following surgery, the patient's neurological deficits markedly improved. The authors review the pathological and imaging features of cerebral sparganosis.

Endonasal endoscopic skull base multilayer reconstruction surgery with nasal pedicled mucosal flap to manage high flow CSF leakage.

AIM: Multilayer reconstruction of skull base using nasal pedicled mucosal flap has been widely accepted as a standard method for repairing high flow cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] leakage. In this study, we analyzed our outcome and summarized several valuable operation experiences from this technique. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study included 20 consecutive patients who underwent endoscopic endonasal multilayer reconstruction using a nasal pedicled mucosal flap to repair high flow CSF leakage and were available for follow-up. RESULTS: In this series, all cases encountered intraoperative high-flow CSF leakage, including 11 (55%) patients with opening of third ventricles (TV) and 9 (45%) patients with wide opening of cistern (CS). After endoscopic endonasal multilayer reconstruction with nasal pedicled mucosal flap, 3 patients (15.0%) encountered CSF leakage in the early postoperative period but were successfully repaired; 2 patients (10.0%) encountered late postoperative CSF leakage. In the TV group, the ratio of CSF leakage was 18.2% (2/11); while the incidence of CSF leakage was 11.1% (1/9) in the CS group. One patient developed meningitis due to CSF leakage four month after surgery, then gave up treatment and died. CONCLUSION: Multilayer reconstruction with nasal pedicled flap seems to be useful and reliable for the treatment of ventral skull base defects using endoscopic endonasal approach.

Intracerebellar hemispheres schwannoma: a case report.

Brain parenchyma schwannoma is a rare intracranial tumor, and especially rare in cerebellar hemisphere. In this report, a case of cerebellar schwannoma in a 52-year-old woman, was studied by computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance image (MRI) and PET-CT. This tumor was totally removed by surgery. The histological diagnosis of schwannoma was confirmed by histological, HE and immunohistological staining examination (positivity for the S-100 protein and vimentin, and partly positivity for P53 (70 %+), and negative for GFAP). The patient has been followed-up for more than one year, and she lives in good condition and brain MRI shows no recurrence. Surgery is the most effective treatment for cerebellar schwannoma.