Genetically-induced deep venous thrombosis presenting as acute mastoiditis.

Sigmoid sinus thrombosis (SST) usually follows acute as well as chronic otitis media with coalescent mastoiditis. A singular case of noncoalescent mastoiditis complicated with thrombosis of deep cerebral sinuses occurring in a young child is presented. A genetic thrombophilic disorder (prothrombin G20210A allele mutation) was identified as the predisposing factor for this unusual complication. Particular emphasis is placed on the course of the disease, which showed regression only after surgical exploration and additional anticoagulant therapy. We conclude that a thorough and early assessment of coagulation factors should always be performed, especially in the population at risk, in order to rule out unusual aetiologies of these rare but still life-threatening pathological processes.

Supratentorial arachnoid cyst mimicking a Ménière's disease attack.

Arachnoid cysts (AC) often present with symptoms depending on their anatomical location within the skull; while supratentorial cysts grow causing relatively few symptoms, infratentorial ones may impair liquor circulation at the level of the fourth ventricle, giving rise to intracranial hypertension, or may stretch the complex nerve network in the cerebello-pontine angle. We report the singular clinical history of a 54-year-old male, who suddenly began to feel dizzy while sitting at his workplace, complaining of left tinnitus and aural fullness, in a classic clinical picture of Ménière's disease. The anomalous findings at otoneurological examination (markedly the left deviation at the Fukuda test) made a magnetic resonance image (MRI) scan mandatory and a huge AC was found in the left fronto-parietal lobe. The mass provoked an evident clockwise rotation of the brainstem that we suppose to be the cause of acoustico-facial bundle stretching explaining the vestibular symptomatology.