Development of anaplastic ependymoma in Rasmussen's encephalitis: review of the literature and case report.
BACKGROUND
Rasmussen's encephalitis (RE) is a form of chronic encephalitis presenting with intractable seizures and progressive neurological deficits in children. The occurrence of anaplastic ependymoma in a diagnosed case of RE has not been reported in the literature.


METHODS
We report an eight and a half year-old boy, a diagnosed case of RE, suffering from intractable right-sided focal seizures, who developed features of raised intracranial pressure during follow-up. Repeat imaging revealed left fronto-temporoparietal mass for which near-total decompression was done. Histopathology of the mass revealed anaplastic ependymoma.


CONCLUSIONS
The etiology of such a co-existence or development of malignancy in a pre-existing RE is yet to be completely understood. Both these entities could have a common etiology of viral- or autoimmune-mediated process, but no definite conclusion can be drawn with all the literature available at the moment.
Kumar
Raj
R
Department of Neurosurgery, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, 226014, India. rajkumar@sgpgi.ac.in
Wani
Abrar Ahad
AA
Reddy
Jaypal
J
Pal
Lily
L
Pradhan
Sunil
S
D001284:Atrophy; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D004806:Ependymoma / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed