Cavernous hemangioma of the frontal bone: a case report

Abstract

Introduction: Cavernous hemangiomas are rare benign bone tumors and those at the level of the cranial bones are even rarer.

Case presentation: A 50-year-old woman of Italian ethnicity presented with a frontal mass. A computed tomography scan showed an osteolytic lesion and a magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed a hypointense lesion on the T1-weighted image and a hyperintense lesion on the T2-weighted image. We performed a tailored craniectomy and cranioplasty. Histological examination revealed a cavernous hemangioma.

Conclusions: These benign tumors do not have classic radiographic features and so can be misinterpreted as lesions like multiple myeloma or osteosarcoma. Consequently, the diagnosis is most often made during surgical resection.

Figure 1

A magnetic resonance imaging scan shows a hypointense lesion (yellow arrow) on the T1-weighted image (A) and a hyperintense lesion (pink arrow) on the T2-weighted image (B); a computed tomography scan reveals an osteolytic lesion (green arrow) with erosion of the tabula externa (C); a three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull with evidence of the lesion in the pre-operative time (red arrow) (D).