Teaching NeuroImages: Microvascular decompression of the optic nerve

Teaching NeuroImages: microvascular decompression of the optic nerve.

Vascular compression is a known cause of cranial nerve dysfunction in a variety of disease states including trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, and hypoglossal neuralgia.(1,2.)

Optic nerve ischemia: optic nerve sheath decompression alone or with optic nerve decompression.

Microvascular Decompression of the Optic Nerve for Paroxysmal Phosphenes and Visual Field Deficit.

BACKGROUND Microvascular decompression surgery is standard neurosurgical practice for treating trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm. Most other cranial nerves have been decompressed for paroxysmal intermittent hyperactivity of the affected cranial nerve or in very long-standing compressions to treat cranial nerve hypofunctioning. CASE DESCRIPTION We describe a case of intermittent paroxy...

Teaching neuroimages: optic nerve glioma with perineural arachnoid gliomatosis in a patient with neurofibromatosis-1.

A 4-year-old boy presented with a 1-week history of left eye proptosis. Examination showed multiple café-au-lait spots and impaired left eye vision. MRI revealed left optic nerve glioma with perineural arachnoid gliomatosis (PAG) (figure, A–C). The growth patterns of optic nerve gliomas are classified into intraneural and perineural forms. The intraneural form is characterized by fusiform enlar...

Teaching NeuroImages: intraneural ganglion cyst of the tibial nerve.

A 59-year-old man with knee arthritis suddenly developed left posterior thigh pain and complete paralysis of his foot. EMG/nerve conduction studies localized the lesion to the distal sciatic nerve in the thigh (absent motor units from the short head of biceps femoris but normal vastus lateralis). Imaging demonstrated an intraneural ganglion cyst in the tibial nerve extending up to the sciatic n...