Meningeal carcinomatosis in a patient with Crohn's disease

Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, also known as carcinomatous meningitis, is defined by spreading of neoplastic cells to the meninges and ventricles, and is a form of cancer dissemination. In this case, a patient with inflammatory bowel disease had developed a neoplastic process that spread to the meninges. A 49-year-old woman developed an abdominal pain, and was diagnosed the same month with Crohn's disease, complicated with intestinal perforation, for which she was hospitalized. Pathological examination revealed acute phase-terminal ileitis. She undergone many hospitalizations during which she was suspected to have celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and tuberculous meningitis, as well as femoral head necrosis after she had been unsuccessfully treated with Prednisone for Crohn's disease. After she developed peripheral bilateral facial paresis, bilateral hypoacusia, hypotonia, tetraparesis and diminished osteotendinous reflexes at the legs, the patient was admitted in our department. Several lumbar punctures were performed but no specific disease could be detected. The MRI performed showed pachymeningeal and leptomeningeal inflammation. Tuberculous meningitis was taken into consideration and the patient was transferred into an Infectious Disease Department where this diagnostic was infirmed. The patient was retransferred into the Department of Neurology where after an episode of hematemesis she had a cardiac arrest and deceased. Inflammatory bowel disease may involve different segments of the intestine, and may be accompanied by a variety of conditions, such as neurologic findings, osteoarticular manifestations and also may be the starting point of a neoplastic process. The patient had an inflammatory bowel condition, which by the time it was appropriately diagnosed as being Crohn's disease, a neoplastic process spread to the meninges, causing multiple cranial nerve palsy, tetraparesis, along other neurological manifestations.