Intracranial Lipoma

About: Intracranial Lipoma is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 147 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2394 citations.

Pathogenesis of intracranial lipoma: An MR study in 42 patients

Abstract: Intracranial lipomas are uncommon lesions whose development remains poorly understood. To clarify the anatomic and embryologic features of intracranial lipomas, we retrospectively reviewed the MR scans of 42 patients with 44 intracranial lipomas. Interhemispheric lipomas were the most common, accounting for 45% of cases. The remainder of the lesions were clustered in the quadrigeminal/superior cerebellar (25%), suprasellar/interpeduncular (14%), cerebellopontine angle (9%), and sylvian (5%) cisterns. Fifty-five percent of the lesions were associated with brain malformations of varying degrees. Intracranial vessels and nerves were noted to course through 16 (36%) of the lesions. The relative frequencies of the locations of the lipomas correspond to the temporal sequence of dissolution of the meninx primitiva, the mesenchymal anlage of the meninges. This finding supports the concept of lipoma formation as a result of abnormal persistence and maldifferentiation of the meninx. This embryologic concept of the development of intracranial lipomas explains the high frequency of callosal and other brain hypoplasias. Intracranial lipomas are neither hamartomas nor true neoplasms; rather, they are congenital malformations.

Intraspinal lipomas: report of cases; review of the literature, and clinical and pathologic study

Abstract: Masses of adipose tissue within the cranium and within the spinal canal not associated with bifid spines are rare. Intracranial lipoma, reported cases of which numbered 74 up to 1936 (Sperling and Alpers1), rarely produces clinical symptoms because of its small size, and no reported tumor of this sort had been attacked surgically. Intraspinal lipoma is even less common, but it frequently grows to enormous size, produces compression of the spinal cord and is surgically exposed. When it is encountered, its true nature is unsuspected until the yellow mass is visualized or, when the tumor is reddish or white, until histologic examination is made. Elsberg's2series of data on 267 cases of extra-medullary tumors, compiled in 1941, included 6 instances of lipoma. It is probable, however, that the 2 tumors lying both intradurally and extradurally were associated with spina bifida, since Wolf,3in discussing what appears to

Pathogenesis of intracranial lipoma: an MR study in 42 patients.

Abstract: Intracranial lipomas are uncommon lesions whose development remains poorly understood. To clarify the anatomic and embryologic features of intracranial lipomas, we retrospectively reviewed the MR scans of 42 patients with 44 intracranial lipomas. Interhemispheric lipomas were the most common, accounting for 45% of cases. The remainder of the lesions were clustered in the quadrigeminal/superior cerebellar (25%), suprasellar/interpeduncular (14%), cerebellopontine angle (9%), and sylvian (5%) cisterns. Fifty-five percent of the lesions were associated with brain malformations of varying degrees. Intracranial vessels and nerves were noted to course through 16 (36%) of the lesions. The relative frequencies of the locations of the lipomas correspond to the temporal sequence of dissolution of the meninx primitiva, the mesenchymal anlage of the meninges. This finding supports the concept of lipoma formation as a result of abnormal persistence and maldifferentiation of the meninx. This embryologic concept of the development of intracranial lipomas explains the high frequency of callosal and other brain hypoplasias. Intracranial lipomas are neither hamartomas nor true neoplasms; rather, they are congenital malformations.

Intracranial lipomatous hamartomas (intracranial "lipomas"). A study of 13 cases including combinations with medulloblastoma, colloid and epidermoid cysts, angiomatosis and other malformations.

Abstract: 13 cases of intracranial lipomatous hamartomas are presented, 12 of which were incidentally found at autopsy. Only one case, verified by biopsy, showed progressive focal symptoms and lipomatous infiltration of the acoustic nerve. 5 lipomatous hamartomas were located in the cisterna ambiens region, 3 in the cerebellopontine angle, 2 in the hypothalamic and 1 in the callosal regions. 2 cases had multiple intracranial adipose tissue masses. Extracranial malformations were present in 4 cases, whereas 8 observations showed (micro)dysgenesias of brain and meningeal tissues surrounding the lipomatous hamartoma (mixed neuroglial-mesenchymal tissue, glial dystopias, aberrant nerve fibres, “hypertrophic” nerve bundles, peripheral myelin, micropolygyria, cerebellar microdysgenesias). 5 cases are described in detail: 1. Pontine lipomatous hamartoma combined with body malformations, frontobasal epidermoid cyst, tentorial osteoma and cerebellar microdysgenesias. 2. Cerebellar medulloblastoma associated with fibrolipomatous meningeal hamartoma and cerebellar micropolygyria. 3. Large lipomatous hamartoma of the callosal region encircling a colloid cyst. 4. Multiple meningeal fatty nodules associated with facial malformations, cerebellar dysgenesias and tentorial osteoma. 5. Intracranial hamartomatosis with lipo-fibro-angiomatosis of meninges, megadolichobasilaris and multiple “subependymomas”. The origin of intracranial fatty tissue is discussed; intracranial lipomatous hamartoma should be regarded as a complex malformation, affecting both the cerebral ectomesenchyma and brain parenchyma, and classified as true hamartoma (tumour-like, but primarily non-neoplastic malformation). The term “lipoma”, implicating a neoplastic character, should be abandoned. Links to phakomatoses are suggested.