Invasive aspergilloma of the frontal base causing internal carotid artery occlusion.

BACKGROUND

Aspergilloma of the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses rarely extends through the skull base into the intracranial space.

PATIENT: The patient was a 79-year-old man in a nonimmunosuppressive state who had an invasive aspergilloma of the base of the frontal lobe.

CLINICAL COURSE: The patient, whose initial symptom was a visual disturbance, eventually developed an occlusion of the right internal carotid artery and died. The diagnosis was established by a transsphenoidal biopsy.

CONCLUSIONS

A rare case of invasive aspergilloma of the frontal base is described with emphasis on the findings of low-intensity mass on the T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The prognosis in this disease is very poor. Early diagnosis and surgical treatment, combined with postoperative antifungal drug therapy, would have improved the outcome.