Hemicerebellitis mimicking a tumour on MRI.

CASE REPORT: We report a case of hemicerebellitis in a 13-year-old girl presenting with symptoms of intracranial hypertension with acute onset.

RESULTS

MRI of the brain revealed a unilateral cerebellar swelling with foliaform enhancement. The patient was still symptomatic even with high doses of intravenous steroids, so we decided to operate on her for diagnosis and decompression. The pathology showed leptomeningitis. She had a good postoperative outcome and a normal brain MRI 2 months later.

DISCUSSION: It is unusual to have a unilateral cerebellitis; only two cases have been published so far.

CONCLUSION

Although cerebellitis is considered to be benign and self limited, surgical intervention is sometimes mandatory.