Advanced MRI manifestations of trigeminal ganglioneuroma: a case report and literature review

BACKGROUND: Ganglioneuroma is a rare benign tumor originating from the sympathetic nerves, and its origination from the trigeminal nerves is even rarer. Only 4 cases of ganglioneuroma originating from the trigeminal nerve have previously been reported, and these studies only reported conventional MRI manifestations. To our knowledge, the advanced MRI features of trigeminal ganglioneuroma have not been reported thus far. CASE PRESENTATION: This study reports a case of trigeminal ganglioneuroma in the left cerebellopontine angle. Advanced MRI showed the following tumor characteristics: significantly increased perfusion on perfusion imaging; isointense on diffusion-weighted imaging, whorled appearance within the tumor and no significant signs of damage to the white matter fiber tracts in the fractional anisotropy color map, and compare to the adjacent brain tissue, Choline didn’t show markedly elevation, and N-acetylaspartate peak showed slightly reduction on magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The tumor was completely resected, and the diagnosis of ganglioneuroma was confirmed by postoperative pathological examination. CONCLUSION: This case demonstrates the conventional as well as advanced MRI manifestations of this rare extra-axial tumor, which have never been previously reported. In addition, we reviewed the literature to demonstrate the advanced MRI features of trigeminal ganglioneuroma, in order to aid preoperative diagnosis and differentiation.