Bilateral cerebellopontine angle lipomas in an infant with encephalocele: illustrative case

BACKGROUND: Bilateral cerebellopontine angle (CPA) lipomas are extremely rare. Herein the authors present a case of bilateral CPA lipomas in an infant along with a literature review of bilateral CPA lipomas. OBSERVATIONS: A newborn girl was incidentally found to have bilateral CPA lipomas during the workup for an occipital encephalocele. The encephalocele was repaired primarily on day 2 after birth. The patient demonstrated no symptoms associated with the bilateral CPA lipomas. Eight cases of bilateral CPA lipomas were identified in the literature review and are summarized. Conservative management is the consensus strategy, given minimum growth of the tumor and the high risk of surgical intervention. LESSONS: This is the first reported case of bilateral CPA lipomas in an infant as well as the first with a coexisting intracranial malformation. Intracranial lipomas share an extremely low growth rate and typically do not cause severe symptoms. The management of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic bilateral CPA lipomas is usually conservative.