[A new case of "olfactory schwannoma"; presentation and literature review]

We report the case of a 54-year-old man who presented at the Emergency Department with intense headache of 6-days duration and sporadic nominal dysphasia. He did not present anosmia and the rest of the examination was normal. The emergency CT and the posterior cerebral MR showed a great subfrontal extra-axial mass of 7 x 6 x 5 cm, over the right side of the cribiform plate, hetereogeneously enhancing after gadolinium administration. Preoperative diagnosis was olfactory groove meningioma. After total removal by bifrontal craniotomy the histopathological diagnosis was schwannoma of the conventional type. Owing to the unusual frequency of this kind of tumors (26 to the date), we review the literature, the possible radiological differences with olfactory groove meningiomas and the different theories about their origin.