Foreign body of the brainstem by penetrating injury: Conservative treatment

Traumatic brainstem injuries usually lead to severe lesions and unfavourable outcome. In the literature, the few cases with favourable outcome all benefited from surgical removal of the foreign body. We report a very unusual case of a penetrating brainstem injury with a crossbow arrow with conservative treatment and favourable clinical course despite an infectious complication (brainstem abscess). This case illustrates an important gap between a good clinical status and the severity of the lesion highlighted by CT scan. In addition, a collegial decision was made not to treat the lesion surgically, but only the complication, the abscess, by stereotactic puncture. The treatment must thus be tailored in this type of lesion.

Suggestive value of predilection site and imaging features of pediatric brainstem ganglioglioma including a case report

Brainstem ganglioglioma is rarely reported. Due to its low incidence and atypical site, a brainstem ganglioglioma could easily be misdiagnosed as occurs with other pathological neoplasms radiologically. Here, we report an 8-year-old girl with a brainstem tumor confirmed as a ganglioglioma based on postoperative pathology results. We suggest that when a tumor located in the lower brainstem with benign radiological characteristics occurs in a child with a long-term history, the possibility of brainstem ganglioglioma should be considered in the preoperative diagnosis in addition to other low-grade neoplasms. Early stage diagnosis of brainstem ganglioglioma based on the clinical and imaging features is valuable for clinicians in order to perform effective treatment and achieve a good prognosis.