Acute colonic pseudo-obstruction in postchemotherapy complication of brain tumor treated with neostigmine.

Acute colonic pseudo-obstruction is characterized by dilatation of the large bowel without mechanical obstruction. Although the first step of the treatment is conservative management, mechanical decompression should be performed when symptoms persist. Recently, the efficacy of pharmacologic treatment has been reported in adults, but no such data have yet been reported in children for treatment of acute colonic pseudo-obstruction resulting from chemotherapy. We report a 9-year-old boy with acute colonic pseudo-obstruction caused by chemotherapy for brain tumor who did not respond to initial supportive therapy, but who was successfully treated with neostigmine.

Chronic granulomatous neuritis in idiopathic trigeminal sensory neuropathy. Report of two cases.

Idiopathic trigeminal sensory neuropathy is a clinically benign disorder in which the main feature is facial numbness limited to the territory of one or more divisions of the trigeminal nerve; the disorder persists for a few weeks to several years. and no underlying disease can be identified. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging findings are occasionally consistent with a small trigeminal neuroma of the left gasserian ganglion associated with idiopathic trigeminal sensory neuropathy. The authors report on two patients who were treated using a skull base approach in which the gasserian ganglion was exposed and the lesion was removed. The pathological diagnosis was chronic granulomatous neuritis. The authors conclude that, in patients with MR findings suggestive of a small trigeminal neuroma, benign idiopathic trigeminal sensory neuropathy should also be considered in the differential diagnosis. A conservative approach featuring sequential MR imaging studies may avoid an unnecessary surgical exploration.