Meckel cave lesions are numerous. The aim of this article is to list them in an easy way for revision and assessment of differential diagnosis.
Neoplastic
Meckel cave tumours account for only 0.5% of all intracranial tumours. The most common histologies are:
- trigeminal schwannoma: most common, ~33% of cases
- meningioma
- pituitary macroadenoma
- base of skull tumours
- metastases: including retrograde spread of head and neck tumours
- neurolymphomatosis
- epidermoid cyst
- lipoma
Non-neoplastic
These need to be distinguished from Meckel cave tumours:
- internal carotid artery aneurysms/vascular malformation
- petrous apex cephalocele