Cerebellopontine angle lipoma
Dr Jeremy Jones and Dr Frank Gaillard et al.
Cerebellopontine angle (CPA) lipomas account for approximately 10% of all intracranial lipomas. Characteristically they have the facial nerve and vestibulocochlear nerve coursing through it on its way to the IAM and they are associated with intravestibular lipomas and sensory neural hearing loss.
Radiographic features
MRI brain
Signal characteristics are those of a lipoma
- T1 : high signal
- T2 : high signal
- true FISP / FIESTA : low signal margin due to chemical shift artefact
- fat saturated sequences : shows signal dropout
Differential diagnosis
For a general discussion of the differential, refer to:
- the generic article on intracranial lipomas
- differentials of a cerebellopontine angle mass
The differential for lesions with high T1 signal includes:
- haemorrhagic acoustic schwannoma
- neurenteric cyst
- thrombosed berry aneurysm
- white epidermoid
- ruptured intracranial dermoid
Details successfully updated.
Unable to process the form. Check for errors and try again.