Intracranial Hypertension Due to Spinal Cord Tumor Misdiagnosed As Pseudotumor Cerebri Syndrome: Case Report

Overview

Journal BMC Neurol

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Neurology

Date 2020 Nov 20

PMID 33213405

Citations 3

Authors

Wanglu Hu

Chun Wang

Qun Wu

Yike Chen

Wei Gao

Guangyu Ying

Yongjian Zhu

Wei Yan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Isolated onset of intracranial hypertension due to spinal cord tumor is rare, thus, easily leading to misdiagnosis and delay in effective treatment.

Case Presentation: Herein, we describe a 45-year-old female patient who manifested isolated symptoms and signs of intracranial hypertension and whose condition was initially diagnosed as idiopathic intracranial hypertension and transverse sinus stenosis. The patient received a stent implantation; however, no improvements were observed. One year later her symptoms exacerbated, and during rehospitalization a spinal imaging examination revealed a lumbar tumor. Pathologic evaluation confirmed schwannoma, and tumor resection significantly improved her symptoms, except for poor vision.

Conclusions: Space-occupying lesions of the spine should be considered in the differential diagnosis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension, even in the absence of spine-localized signs or symptoms.

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