To Your Health

Doctors find air pocket where part of man’s brain should be

By Amy B Wang March 12 at 1:05 PM



(BMJ Case Reports)

The 84-year-old man arrived in the emergency room with complaints that weren't uncommon for a patient his age. ... He had reported feeling unsteady over the past several months, culminating in repeated falls in recent weeks. In the three days leading up to his hospital visit, his left arm and leg had noticeably weakened. ... Still, there were no red flags in the man's medical history. He didn't smoke. He rarely drank. A blood test detected nothing abnormal.

“There was no confusion, facial weakness, visual or speech disturbance,” doctors stated in a summary of the man's case published Feb. 27 in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports. “He was otherwise fit and well, independent with physical activities of daily living ... and lived at home with his wife and two sons.”

In other words, doctors thought, there was nothing apparent that would have suggested a clear reason for his symptoms. In a way, they wouldn't be wrong.

It was only after CT and MRI scans that the patient's medical team made an alarming discovery: Where much of the man's right frontal lobe of his brain should have been, there was simply a large blank space.
....

Amy B Wang is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post covering national and breaking news. Follow @amybwang