Primary cerebellopontine angle angiosarcoma

J Clin Neurosci. 2008 Aug;15(8):942-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2006.11.018. Epub 2008 Mar 7.

Abstract

Primary intracranial angiosarcomas are rare. Only a few cases have been reported in the literature. All cases reported were located in the supratentorial areas. To our knowledge, no cerebellopontine (CP) angle angiosarcoma has been reported. We report a 16-year-old girl who had mild headache, right-sided tinnitus and amblyacousia of 1-year's duration. She later developed abruptly severe headache and vomiting, accompanied by left hemiparesis, numbness, ataxia and bucking, and computerized tomography scan and magnetic resonance imaging were performed. There was a lesion in the right CP angle with haemorrhage and edema. The preoperative diagnosis was neurogenic tumor with haemorrhage. The patient underwent an emergency suboccipital craniectomy, and the lesion was excised completely. Histopathology and immunohistochemistry revealed an angiosarcoma. Postoperative radiotherapy was given. At the time of hospital discharge, she was in better clinical and neurological condition than her preoperative state. She has been followed up for 6 months and is is still in excellent condition without any sign of recurrence. This case report highlights that clinicians should be aware of the characteristics of angiosarcoma, and also stresses the need to include angiosarcoma in the differential diagnosis of rare lesions located in the CP angle.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Cerebellar Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Cerebellopontine Angle / pathology*
  • Female
  • Hemangiosarcoma / pathology*
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed