Intracranial neuroenteric cysts: a concise review including an illustrative patient

Neuroenteric cysts (NC) are rare, benign lesions lined by mucin-secreting cuboidal or columnar epithelium of an intestinal or respiratory type. They are regarded as ectopic endodermal cysts, and tend to be found in the spine rather than an intracranial location. Advances in neuroimaging have led to an increased frequency of diagnosis of NC, especially as an incidental finding, although such cysts may be confused radiologically with other lesions such as epidermoid and arachnoid cysts. We undertook a PubMed search of the literature using the search terms "neuroenteric cyst" and its many pseudonyms, including "endodermal cyst", "enterogenous cyst", "neurenteric cyst", "epithelial cyst", "intestinome", "teratomatous cyst", "gastrocytoma", and also "enterogenic", "foregut", "respiratory", and "bronchogenic cyst". Only reports in English and those containing histopathologically-confirmed NC were considered for this review. In total, 140 patients with intracranial NC were found, including the patient reported in the present review. This review describes the classification, epidemiology, embryology, clinical presentation, radiology, histopathology, and surgical treatment of NC, and includes an illustrative patient.