Nasal glioma and encephalocele: two separate entities

Abstract

The term "nasal glioma" is a confusing misnomer as it implies a neoplastic condition with malignant potential, which it is not. Nasal glioma is a rare development abnormality and should be differentiated from glioma, which is a malignant tumor of the brain, and from a primary encephalocele, which is herniation of the cranial contents through a bone defect in the skull, through which it retains an intact connection with the central nervous system. Two cases of nasal glioma, one with and one without intracranial connections, are described and the literature is reviewed.

Nasal glioma : A case report

“…Histologically nasal gliomas consist of unencapsulated rest of glial cells predominantly astrocytes embedded in varying amounts of fibromuscular stroma . (202,22) Similar findings were seen in our patient. ( figure 4).…”

Frontoethmoidal Encephaloceles, a Study of Their Pathogenesis

“…Younus and Coode [57] describe specific morphological fea tures which distinguish nasal gliomas from encephalo celes. Others state that the presence of a connection with the intradural compartment is a specific feature of ence phaloceles [58].…”

Recurrent Intra Nasal Glioma: A Case Report

“…On MRI, the lesion is isointense to hypo-intense relative to gray matter on T1-weighted sequences and hyper-intense on T2-weighted and photon density sequences. (9,11) Histologically, nasal gliomas consist of unencapsulated rests of glial cells, predominantly astrocytes, embedded in varying amount of fibromuscular stroma (12,13,14) that may covered with skin or nasal respiratory mucosa, true capsule is absent and mistosis is rare, the glial nature of the cells can be further confirmed by immunohistochemical demonstration of S100 protein and GFAP. The differential diagnosis of nasal gliomas includes several disorders, which can present as nasal masses.…”