Headache Medicine, v.8, n.1, p.25, Jan./Feb./Mar. 2017 25

Headache as a single clinical manifestation of a colloid cyst

in the third ventricle

Cefaleia como manifestação clínica única de um cisto coloide do terceiro ventrículo

Marcelo Moraes Valença

, Helysânia Shádylla Santos de Farias

, Laryssa Crystinne Azevedo Almeida

Cassia Luana dos Santos França

, Karolyne Ernesto Luiz Nobre

, Marcelo Andrade Valença

Mário Luciano de Mélo Silva Júnior

, Luciana Patrízia Alves de Andrade Valença

Neurosurgery and Neurology Unit, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

FCM, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil

Valença MM, Farias HSS, Almeida LCA, França CLS, Nobre K, Valença MA, Silva Júnior MLM, Valença LPAA.

Headache as a single clinical manifestation of a colloid cyst in the third ventricle. Headache Medicine. 2017;8(1):25

NEUROIMAGING IN HEADACHE

INTRODUCTION

The colloid cyst of the third ventricle is a rare tumor. Its

estimated incidence is 3 cases per million inhabitants per

year.

(1)

With the more frequent use of neuroimaging, many

of the colloid cysts of the third ventricle are incidental findings,

so they are asymptomatic lesions.

(1)

In a large series of 163 cases, only 40% of the

individuals with colloid cyst of the third ventricle were

symptomatic.

CASE REPORT

In this article, the authors wish to show the images

(Figure 1) obtained by MR of a 32-year-old woman

complaining of one week of a history of severe, pulsatile,

holocranial and continuous headache, partially alleviated

with analgesics. There was a progressive increase in pain

intensity until a week later when she had a very severe

headache, referred to as the worst she experienced in her

life, associated with visual impairment, nausea, photo- and

phonophobia. Vomiting was not present and she had no

previous history of primary headache.

This type of headache associated with colloid cyst of the

third ventricle should be valued because the cyst may obstruct

the foramen of Monro, causing obstruction in the CSF passage,

leading to acute hydrocephalus and sudden death.

(1,2)

REFERENCE

1. Beaumont TL, Limbrick DD Jr, Rich KM, Wippold FJ 2nd, Dacey RG

Jr. Natural history of colloid cysts of the third ventricle. J Neurosurg.

2016 Dec;125(6):1420-1430. Epub 2016 Mar 11.

2. Spears RC. Colloid cyst headache. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2004

Aug;8(4):297-300.

Received: January 29, 2017

Accepted: February 5, 2017

Figure 1. Images obtained by magnetic resonance of the encephalon in the transverse, sagittal and

coronal sections.