A petroclival glioma mimicking trigeminal schwannoma: A case report

RATIONALE: Glioma in the petroclival region is very rare. Also, very few cases of primary gliomas have been reported to have radiographic as well as intraoperative features of extra-axial lesions resulting in diagnostic dilemma in the literature. We present a rare case of petroclival glioma mimicking trigeminal schwannoma in a young female. PATIENT CONCERNS: We present a 21-years old female with a 3-month history of pain in the right eye with no visual impairment. Cranial nerves examination revealed mild deficits in the trigeminal nerve, facial nerve, auditory nerve, oculomotor as well as the trochlear nerve. DIAGNOSES: Magnetic resonance imaging detected an extra-axial mass with mixed signal intensities in the right petroclivus area. Immunohistochemical established glioma with world health organization (WHO) grade II. INTERVENTIONS: The lesion was resected via 2 successive operations in 6 months interval. The patient was further treated with radiotherapy and post-radiotherapy temozolamide. OUTCOMES: Two years follow-up revealed no recurrence of the lesions and she is well. Nevertheless, he is still being followed diligently to uncover any recurrence. LESSONS: The extra-axial nature as well as petroclival location of the glioma makes our case very unique and very rare. The imaging characteristics were very extraordinary for a glioma which resulted in diagnostic dilemma. Thus, the definitive diagnosis was based on the histopathological evaluation of the excised tumor.