Lethal extracranial hemorrhage due to intracranial clivalchordoma: An autopsy case

Abstract

We present a case of a 48-year-old man's unexpected death affected by a relapsed clivalchordoma. After partial excision surgery of the neoplasm, he manifested 5 days later, in conditions of well-being, a sudden lethal extracranial hemorrhage from nose and mouth. The autopsy examination and the subsequent histological investigations did not allow us to clarify the exact origin of the bleeding. Based on the negativity of the accurate examinations performed, the extent of the bleeding, and the findings highlighted by the means of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) carried out a few days before death, we have considered reasonable to localize the source of hemorrhage in the intrapetrous tract of the left internal carotid artery. Since this is a unique event, never previously documented, we believe that our report may be of interest to the scientific community.

Keywords

• clivalchordoma
• extracranial hemorrhage
• forensic pathology
• sudden death