title: Pathological laughter in a patient with Rathke cleft cyst.
abstract: Rathke cleft cysts (RCCs) arise from embryonic remnants of Rathke's pouch, and usually manifest as headaches, visual impairments and endocrine disturbances. We report a rare case of suprasellar RCC with the main symptom of pathological laughter. A 14-year-old girl presented with involuntary laughter, ataxia in the right arm and slightly impaired speech articulation. MRI revealed a huge suprasellar cyst causing severe compression of the midbrain and pons. The cyst was removed via a sphenoid ridge keyhole approach. Histologic examination resulted in a diagnosis of RCC. The spontaneous laughing spells disappeared immediately after surgery. In this case, compression of the upper brainstem might have been the cause of the pathological laughter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, First People's Municipal Hospital, Guangzhou Medical College, 1 Panhu Road, Guangzhou 510000, China.
authors.forename: Zhikai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Zhengbin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D001259:Ataxia / Q000209:etiology; D020863:Central Nervous System Cysts / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007845:Laughter / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000473:pathology; D011149:Pons / Q000473:pathology