Familial fatal and near-fatal third ventricle colloid cysts.
BACKGROUND
Despite having a presumed congenital origin, familial cases of colloid cysts have been reported only rarely. The first case of a brother and sister with colloid cysts is reported here, and the relevant literature is reviewed.


METHODS
A 25-year-old man presented with a 24-h history of headache and vomiting. He rapidly became unconscious and fulfilled the criteria for brain death on arrival at hospital. No surgical intervention was performed.


RESULTS
The patient's sister presented at the age of 41 with headaches and rapidly became unconscious. The sister had urgent bilateral ventriculostomies. followed by transcallosal removal of a colloid cyst.


CONCLUSIONS
These cases support the hypothesis that colloid cysts are congenital lesions and provide some evidence of a possible genetic predisposition to their formation. Sudden death remains a real risk for patients harbouring a colloid cyst.
Stoodley
M A
MA
Department of Neurosurgery, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia, Australia. mstoodley@stanford.edu
Nguyen
T P
TP
Robbins
P
P
D000328:Adult; D001926:Brain Death; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000601:surgery; D003560:Cysts / Q000235:genetics* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020542:Third Ventricle / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D014474:Unconsciousness / Q000209:etiology; D014696:Ventriculostomy; D014839:Vomiting / Q000209:etiology