Chronic and acute transtentorial herniation with tumours of the posterior cranial fossa

Abstract

In patients with expanding lesions of the posterior fossa general hyper-reflexia (and bilateral latency shifts of auditory evoked brain stem potentials) have been noted as possible symptoms of chronic ascending transtentorial herniation. After ventricular tap, this chronic herniation may evolve into acute herniation with progressive reduction of consciousness which in our experience can only be survived by decompression of the compressed brain stem. The chronic transtentorial herniation is related morphologically to demyelination of the pyramidal tracts and the auditory pathways, whereas the acute transtentorial herniation is related to microcirculatory disturbances in the reticular formation of the mesencephalo-pontine junction.