Isolated skull base metastasis as the first manifestation of hepatocellular carcinoma--a rare case report with review of literature.

INTRODUCTION

Hepatocellular carcinoma rarely metastasizes to skull base.

CASE REPORT: We report an extremely rare case of solitary skull base metastasis without metastasis to any other site, with right third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerve palsy as the initial manifestation of the disease.

DISCUSSION: The biopsy specimen of skull base lytic lesion suggested metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma. Subsequent examination revealed a large mass involving superior segment of right lobe of liver, which was confirmed as hepatocellular carcinoma on histopathological examination.

CONCLUSION

Until now, there have been only 24 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma metastasizing to skull base cited in literature. We report here an unusual case of solitary skull base metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma prior to the diagnosis of primary tumor.