Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 6, 2024; 12(25): 5814-5820
Published online Sep 6, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i25.5814
Ventricular system-unrelated cerebellar ependymoma: A case report
Chao-Ge Yang, Rui-Feng Xue, Lu-Xia Yang, Xiao-Lin Jieda, Wei Xiang, Jie Zhou
Chao-Ge Yang, Rui-Feng Xue, Lu-Xia Yang, Wei Xiang, Jie Zhou, Department of Neurosurgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Xiao-Lin Jieda, Department of Neonatology, Children's Medical Center, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Co-first authors: Chao-Ge Yang and Rui-Feng Xue.
Co-corresponding authors: Wei Xiang and Jie Zhou.
Author contributions: Yang CG and Xue RF were contributed to manuscript writing and editing, and data collection; Yang LX and Jieda XL were contributed to data analysis; Xiang W and Zhou J were contributed to conceptualization and supervision; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by The Sichuan Medical Youth Innovation Research Project, No. Q22044.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: Https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jie Zhou, MD, Chief Physician, Neurosurgeon, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, No. 25 Taiping Street, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China. zhoujie@swmu.edu.cn
Received: April 26, 2024
Revised: June 10, 2024
Accepted: July 2, 2024
Published online: September 6, 2024
Processing time: 80 Days and 10.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

An ependymoma is a glial tumor that usually occurs in or near the ventricle, close to the ependyma. It rarely occurs exclusively in the brain parenchyma without being associated with the ventricle.

CASE SUMMARY

Here, we report a rare case of a cerebellar ependymoma completely located in the brain parenchyma. A previously healthy 32-year-old female with a 1-month history of dizziness was admitted to our hospital. During hospitalization, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed a space-occupying lesion measuring 57 mm × 41 mm × 51 mm in the right cerebellar hemisphere and inferior cerebellar vermis. The patient underwent surgical resection for the right cerebellar mass. Postoperative pathological examination revealed an ependymoma. At 1 year follow-up, the patient was doing well and showed no recurrence.

CONCLUSION

We conducted a literature review and summarized three theories regarding ependymomas located exclusively in the brain parenchyma, which are key to the diagnosis of intraparenchymal cerebellar ependymomas. Surgery and postoperative radiotherapy are the primary treatment options for ependymomas.

Keywords: Cerebellar ependymoma, Brain parenchyma, Mechanisms, Surgery, Case report

Core Tip: Ependymomas seldom occur exclusively in the brain parenchyma without being associated with the ventricles. Here, we report a rare case of cerebellar ependymoma completely located in the brain parenchyma. Moreover, we conducted a literature review to summarize three theories of brain parenchymal ependymoma and treatment options for this type of tumor to strengthen clinicians’ capacity to identify and treat cerebellar ependymoma located in the brain parenchyma.