Audiovestibular findings in a 6 year old child with pilocytic astrocytoma – a case report

Abstract

Objective: Pilocytic astrocytoma commonly occurs in children and depending on the extension of the lesion may cause varied audiovestibular dysfunctions. However, audiovestibular findings are scarcely reported in the literature.

Design: Audiovestibular testing was performed on a single subject on two occasions pre-surgically.

Study sample: A 6 year old girl with pilocytic astrocytoma.

Results: All audiological tests revealed normal findings except for the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing (cVEMP). The amplitude of cVEMP was higher in the lesion side indicating a hypersensitive vestibulocollic reflex pathway functioning.

Conclusions: This case study reported a unique finding of hypersensitive cVEMP findings in the lesion side in a patient with pilocytic astrocytoma. The pathophysiological basis for this hypersensitivity is attributed to anatomical connections between the cerebellum and the vestibular nuclei through the inferior cerebellar peduncle.

Keywords:

• Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential
• pilocytic astrocytoma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.