A 37-Year-Old Saudi Man with a Calcified Intraventricular Astrocytoma

Patient: Male, 37-year-old Final Diagnosis: Pilocytic astrocytoma Symptoms: Headache and blurred vision Medication:— Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Neurosurgery • Pathology OBJECTIVE: Unusual clinical course BACKGROUND: Pilocytic astrocytoma is a low-grade glioma that is common in children. Pilocytic astrocytoma is a slow-growing neoplasm that may calcify and occurs throughout the central nervous system, but it has a preference to be located infratentorial in children. CASE REPORT: Herein, we report an unusual intraventricular location of pilocytic astrocytoma with extensive calcification in a 37-year-old Saudi man who mainly presented with a headache. Although pilocytic astrocytoma can arise throughout the central nervous system, it very rarely arises from the ventricles, especially the lateral ventricle. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of intraventricular tumors arise within the third and fourth ventricles. The unusual intraventricular location and the unexpected age group are the main difficulties in diagnosing an adult with intraventricular pilocytic astrocytoma. Intraventricular pilocytic astrocytoma can be missed radiologically and misled pathologically; therefore, it should be considered within the differential diagnosis of intraventricular tumors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case to be reported in Saudi Arabia.