False lateralazing sign in skull base tumor a case series of five patients

Abstract

Paradoxical neurological signs constitute a very important clinical entity for physicians to be aware of and they are of paramount importance to bear in mind in-order to avoid confusion when diagnosing lesions based on anatomic localization. Although false lateralizing syndromes have been widely described in the areas of traumatic brain injury and intracranial vascular-hemorrhagic lesions, this sort of manifestation has been overlooked in the instance of skull base neoplasms. Despite modern neuroimaging, knowledge of these disorders is essential, for correct clinical diagnosis. The authors hereby present five such cases of patients harboring cranial-based tumors whose impaired functions are appropriately categorized as a false localizing sign. All patients showed improvement of symptoms after surgical intervention. The purpose of this article is to describe the causality of this phenomenon, and to increase awareness to the entity of false lateralizing signs when clinically approaching a patient with a skull base tumor.

Keywords

• False laterlazing sign
• Skull base
• Trigeminal neuralgia
• Hemifacial spasm
• Ipsilateral hemiparesis