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Familial fatal and near-fatal third ventricle colloid cysts
M A Stoodley1, T P Nguyen, P Robbins
1Department of Neurosurgery, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia, Australia. mstoodley@stanford.edu
Background:
Despite having a presumed congenital origin, familial cases of colloid cysts have been reported only rarely. The first case of a brother and sister with colloid cysts is reported here, and the relevant literature is reviewed.
Methods:
A 25-year-old man presented with a 24-h history of headache and vomiting. He rapidly became unconscious and fulfilled the criteria for brain death on arrival at hospital. No surgical intervention was performed.
Results:
The patient's sister presented at the age of 41 with headaches and rapidly became unconscious. The sister had urgent bilateral ventriculostomies. followed by transcallosal removal of a colloid cyst.
Conclusions:
These cases support the hypothesis that colloid cysts are congenital lesions and provide some evidence of a possible genetic predisposition to their formation. Sudden death remains a real risk for patients harbouring a colloid cyst.