Background & Importance: Primary hemifacial spasm is usually caused by microvascular compression of the facial nerve at its root exit zone at brainstem without any space-occupying pathology. Secondary or so-called symptomatic hemifacial spasm has an additional underlying pathology e.g. tumors leading to the microvascular compression. We review and discuss the pathophysiology and the literature ...

A 4-year-old female French bulldog presented with a 6-month history of right-sided head tilt and acute onset ataxia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a large mass lesion at the cerebellomedullary pontine angle. The dog was able to stand and walk after beginning symptomatic therapy with prednisolone, acetazolamide and glycerin. Magnetic resonance imaging 10 months after the first examinat...

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma is a lethal brain cancer that arises in the pons of children. The median survival for children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma is less than 1 year from diagnosis, and no improvement in survival has been realized in more than 30 years. Currently, the standard of care for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma is focal radiation therapy, which provides only tempor...

BACKGROUND It is a common occurrence in the balance function laboratory to evaluate patients in the post-acute period following unilateral vestibular system impairment. It is important to be able to differentiate spontaneous nystagmus (SN) emanating from peripheral vestibular system impairments from asymmetric gaze-evoked nystagmus (GEN) that originates from central ocular motility impairment. ...

Endolymphatic sac tumour (ELST) is a primary low-grade, locally invasive adenocarcinoma of the endolymphatic sac, characterized by the proliferation of cuboidal cells forming a papillotubular pattern and colloid-filled cysts. Rare in the general population, it coincides significantly with the presence of von Hippel-Lindau disease. The natural history, mechanisms underlying the early symptoms, a...

A 66-year-old man, with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis 40 years before admission, complained of headache and dysarthria that lasted for 2 weeks and was followed by diplopia. MRI revealed an isolated nodular lesion in the pons with a marked enhancement mimicking brain tumor and other diseases. Antituberculous drugs were started under the presumptive diagnosis of tuberculoma. The lesion was ...

Degenerative diseases of the central nervous system have until recently been considered as being rather fixed in type, and most cases could be readily classified. The outstanding degenerative diseases are: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and Friedreich's Tabes in the spinal cord. In the encephalon they are: Atrophy of either basal ganglia or the cerebellum, together with...