Vol.101 No.7 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 101 No. 7 July 2008
A Case of Meningeal Carcinomatosis Presenting with
Bilateral Progressive Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Takahito Kondo, Akira Hagiwara, Yasuo Ogawa, Nobuhiro Nishiyama,
Tatsuya Hasegawa, Tetsuya Yamada and Mamoru Suzuki
(Tokyo Medical University Hospital)
We report the case of a 45-year-old man with meningeal carcinomatosis who presented with bilateral progressive sensorineural hearing loss. The patient had been operated on for sigmoid colon cancer and lung cancer in 2006. He had experienced left hearing loss and left susurrus aurium since April 2007. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed an enhanced mass in the left internal acoustic meatus, so we first suspected vestibular schwannoma. One month later, sudden sensorineural hearing loss developed on the other side. We examined the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and adenocarcinoma was detected. A diagnosis of meningeal carcinomatosis was made. With a history of malignant tumor, meningeal carcinomatosis should be considered as a cause of sensorineural hearing loss.
Key words :meningeal carcinomatosis, carcinomatous meningitis, progressive deafness, sensorineural hearing loss, vestibular schwannoma