Aneurysm of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery presenting as intraventricular hemorrhage in a child: report of a case with survival.

Reprint requests to Richard Leblanc, M.D., the Montreal Neurological Hospital, 3801 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 2B4. INTRODUCTION Posterior fossa aneurysms in children are uncommon lesions whose natural history is poorly defined (Gold et al., 1973). Aneurysms of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) in children are even less common (Pickering et al., 1970). McDonald and Korb (1939) found only one in a child in a review of 1,125 post-mortem cases from the literature to 1938. With the advent of angiography, the antemortem diagnosis of cerebral aneurysms came to the fore. However, because of reticence on the part of neurosurgeons to operate on aneurysms in the posterior fossa, there was limited incentive for angiographic examination of this region (Laine, 1968). This situation has now been corrected, but the demonstration of a PICA aneurysm in a child remains an unusual occurrence. We report the case of a five year old boy with such a lesion presenting with an intraventricular hemorrhage whose aneurysm was successfully clipped and who survived without significant neurological sequelae.