Pneumoventricle of Unknown Origin: A Personal Experience and Literature Review of a Clinical Enigma

Pneumocephalus is an uncommon and life-threatening neurologic condition. Air within the ventricular system of the brain is also known as pneumoventricle (PV). It requires emergency treatments to prevent catastrophic neurologic outcomes. Head injury is the most common cause of PV, but there are other...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:World neurosurgery 2019-02, Vol.122, p.661-664
Main Authors: Armocida, Daniele, Pesce, Alessandro, Frati, Alessandro, Miscusi, Massimo, Paglia, Francesco, Raco, Antonino
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Head trauma
HRCT
MRI
Pneumocephalus
Pneumoventricle
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Pneumocephalus is an uncommon and life-threatening neurologic condition. Air within the ventricular system of the brain is also known as pneumoventricle (PV). It requires emergency treatments to prevent catastrophic neurologic outcomes. Head injury is the most common cause of PV, but there are other well-recognized etiologies in case there is no clear radiological evidence of skull discontinuity. Although this clinical entity has been well described in the literature, our report presents the unique feature of describing a purely ventricular pneumocephalus without evidence of skull base or cranial vault fracture. Therefore, this case presentation explores mysterious causes of fistulous connections with the atmosphere that may lead to air trapped in and around the cranial vault. The aim of the present paper is to report a case of post-traumatic PV without radiological signs of skull base or convexity fracture in a 72-year-old man, underlining the diagnostic and clinical features, and review the relevant literature.
ISSN:1878-8750
1878-8769
DOI:10.1016/j.wneu.2018.11.050