[A case of a giant epidermoid cyst on the occipital scalp]

The authors report a case of a 61-year-old woman presenting with a giant mass on the occipital scalp. The patient had no neurological deficits and was of normal intelligence. The lesion was soft and covered by an unremarkable epidermis. The preoperative radiologic evaluation was made by CT, MR Imaging, and by cerebral angiogram. The mass produced an inhomogeneously low-intensity signal involving also a high-intensity signal. It was shown, on the T1 weighted image, that it did not communicate with the intracranial space, and there was no gadolinium-enhanced lesion. MR Imaging was superior to CT in the evaluation of the giant mass on the scalp and was particularly useful in surgical planning. At surgical resection, a soft fluffy, white-colored tumor which measured 16 x 10 x 7 cm was totally removed. Pathological diagnosis of the tumor was epidermoid cyst.