Benign meningioma with complete erosion of the skull in a 38-year-old Ghanaian woman

Abstract

Meningioma is common intracranial benign tumour, but may be diagnosed only at autopsy in developing countries. We present a 38-year-old woman with progressively worsening headache of 7 years duration, who had sudden onset of inability to walk, vomiting and loss of consciousness. She died shortly on admission at the Tamale Teaching Hospital emergency unit. Autopsy conducted found an encapsulated left cerebral hemisphere convexity tumour that had eroded the skull with extension onto the scalp as a swelling. Histological examination confined the tumour to WHO grade I, meningioma.