Description
The specimen shows a thin-walled cyst some 2.0 cm in diameter occupying the third ventricle.
The convolutions of the hemispheres are flattened.
History
This man, at the age of 39, was admitted to hospital with severe headaches; he is said to
have suffered migraine for more than twenty years. With the onset of headache he had had two
fits; on admission he was in coma with moderately dilated and fixed pupils; a lumbar puncture
was carried out; the pressure was 43 cm of water. He subsequently had a respiratory arrest
associated with a hypertensive episode. At autopsy, coning was demonstrated; the cyst described
was found to be of ependymal origin. It is suggested that intermittent foraminal obstruction may
have been responsible for the intermittent headaches he had suffered.