Open AccessDorsally exophytic glioblastoma arising from the medulla oblongata in an adult presenting as 4th ventricular mass
Author(s) -
Kuntal Kanti Das,
Guru Prasad Bettaswamy,
Anant Mehrotra,
Sushila Jaiswal,
Awadhesh Kumar Jaiswal,
Sanjay Behari
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asian journal of neurosurgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2248-9614
DOI - 10.4103/1793-5482.144151
Subject(s) - medulla oblongata , brainstem , medicine , cerebellopontine angle , fourth ventricle , pilocytic astrocytoma , pathology , glioblastoma , anatomy , astrocytoma , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , central nervous system , cancer research
Brainstem gliomas are relatively rare in adults (<2% of all gliomas). Exophytic gliomas are focal brainstem lesions, which project into the 4 th ventricle or cerebellopontine angles. These exophytic lesions are usually of low-grade histology (pilocytic astrocytoma or ganglioglioma) and have a relatively better outcome compared with brainstem gliomas as a whole. Glioblastoma is the commonest primary glial cell neoplasm and mostly occurs in the supratentorial compartment. It is rather uncommon in the brainstem and seldom has been described as having an exophytic growth pattern. Here we describe an exophytic brainstem glioblastoma arising from the medulla oblongata in a 55-year-old lady who presented with a 4 th ventricular mass, and present a brief review of the literature. Till now, six cases of glioblastoma arising from the medulla oblongata have been reported. So, ours is the seventh such report. To the best of our knowledge, it also happens to be the sixth reported case of dorsally exophytic brainstem glioblastoma till date.