First reported case of hydrocephalus in jointly diagnosed bacterial meningitis and a colloid cyst: how Ockham’s razor became Hickam’s dictum

Abstract

We report the first case in the literature of acute hydrocephalus due to a simultaneous diagnosis of bacterial (not asceptic) meningitis and a colloid cyst. Diagnosing disease is the cornerstone skill of a medical practitioner. Both education and experience allow for sharpening of this skill throughout years of medical practice. Disease is fraught with nuances and inconsistencies which can render an accurate diagnosis a difficult task. Medical practitioners can be guilty of cognitive biases such as Ockham’s razor. We present the case of a patient with an initial diagnosis of obstructive hydrocephalus secondary to a colloid cyst. However, pneumococcal meningitis blunted Ockham’s razor in favour of Hickam’s dictum.

Keywords:

• Neuro oncology
• colloid cyst
• hydrocephalus
• confusion
• simplicity

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and the Department of Neurosurgery at the Institute of Neurological Sciences (INS) for their support.

Patient consent

We obtained written consent from the patient. This is available on request

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

GM (Conceptualization; Methodology; Investigation; Resources; Writing – Original Draft; Visualization). SL (Conceptualization; Methodology; Formal Analysis; Resources; Writing – Original Draft; Visualization; Supervision). SL scrutinized the whole manuscript and double checked it for accuracy and fluency. AK (Writing – Review & Editing). AH (Writing – Review & Editing). EJSt.G (Conceptualization; Supervision).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.