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Clival Chordoma Presenting with Acute Brain Stem Hemorrhage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Allan D.O. Levi
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery/Neuropathology, Mississauga Hospital, Department of Neuroradiology, The Toronto Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto
Walter Kucharczyk
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery/Neuropathology, Mississauga Hospital, Department of Neuroradiology, The Toronto Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto
Arnold P. Lang
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery/Neuropathology, Mississauga Hospital, Department of Neuroradiology, The Toronto Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto
Hart Schutz*
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery/Neuropathology, Mississauga Hospital, Department of Neuroradiology, The Toronto Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto
*
Division of Neurosurgery, Mississauga Hospital, 100 Queensway West, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, L5B 1B8
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Abstract:

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The authors present a case of a 29-year-old man who developed rapidly progressive cranial nerve palsies and a right hemiparesis secondary to a pontine hemorrhage. The rare but correct diagnosis of a clival chordoma which had invaded the brain stem and subsequently hemorrhaged was based on computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The diagnosis was confirmed at surgery when the patient underwent a successful operative decompression of tumor and clot from the pons via a sub-occipital craniotomy. This represents the first case of a clival chordoma to hemorrhage into the brain stem, which was diagnosed preoperatively and the patient survived.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1991

References

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