Different Aspects on Clinical Presentation of Developmental Venous Anomalies: Are They as Benign as Known? A Single Center Experience.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral developmental venous anomalies (DVAs) are frequently diagnosed incidentally owing to the advances in neuroimaging. They are regarded as clinically insignificant due to their supposed quiescent existence which the authors aimed to contradict in this paper. AIM: In the aim of constituting a better understanding of clinical presentation of DVAs and making an estimation regarding the probability of resulting in a hemorrhage, the authors presented their experiences with a case series of DVAs. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was carried out among patients who underwent brain MRI in a radiology department of a university between January of 2019 and January of 2020. RESULTS: A total of 101 patients with DVA were extracted. 38 patients had isolated DVAs, while 63 patients had various accompanying cerebral pathologies, mostly cavernomas (39 patients) and AVMs (11 patients). The main complaints leading investigation were headache, dizziness, ataxia, nausea\vomiting, seizures and focal neurological deficits. 41 patients were truly symptomatic with indicative findings of seizures, neurological deficits or intracranial hemorrhages, and 12 of them had solitary DVAs. 22 patients presented with hemorrhages, and of them, 10 had only DVA, while the rest had some associated lesions, most often cavernoma. Of 22 patients with hemorrhage, 5 were operated, 5 were applied radiosurgery; while the rest were followed without any intervention. CONCLUSION: Although the symptoms in patients with DVA are generally charged on other associated pathologies, the fact that isolated DVAs may occasionally be problematic in the range of minor symptoms and severe hemorrhage should not be underestimated.

Two-Dimensional Video of Surgery on Trochlear Schwannoma.

Trochlear schwannoma in the absence of neurofibromatosis is a rare entity.1 These schwannomas originate usually from the intradural cisternal part of the nerve and expand in the ambient and interpeduncular cisterns as well as inferiorly in the upper part of the cerebellopontine cistern.2 This case involves a rare pontomesencephalic lesion removed successfully via the simple retrosigmoid suboccipital route (Video 1). A 49-year-old woman presented to our institute with decreased sensation on the left side of her body for 2 months. Neurologic examination revealed left hemihypoesthesia. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging revealed a lobulated, heterogeneously enhanced cystic tumor within the right ambient cistern compressing the adjacent midbrain and extending to the cerebellopontine angle. After obtaining consent for surgery, the patient underwent a right suboccipital retrosigmoid approach for exploration and resection of the lesion. During the operation, it was determined that the tumor originated from the trochlear nerve. Nerve-sparing surgery was performed with intraoperative neuromonitoring including cranial nerve V, VII, X, XI, and XII electromyography and muscle motor evoked potentials. Gross total resection of the tumor was achieved. In the early postoperative period, the patient's eye movements were normal in all directions. The patient did not have any visual problems and experienced improvement in hemihypoesthesia. She was discharged on the third postoperative day. Pathologic examination confirmed diagnosis of schwannoma. At 2 months after surgery, the patient's eye movements were intact, and trochlear nerve palsy did not occur. The patient gave written informed consent for surgery and publication of this case report.