CAVERNOUS HEMANGIOMAS OF THE CENTRAL-NERVOUS-SYSTEM - NO LONGER OCCULT LESIONS

Cavernous haemangiomas are vascular malformations that occur throughou t the central nervous system. They typically consist of thin walled si nusoids devoid of smooth muscle without any interstitial cerebral pare nchyma(1). The surrounding brain tissue is often gliotic and haemoside rin stained. They are relatively insensitive to diagnosis via computer ised tomography or cerebral angiography and until now were considered quite rare(2,3,4). With the advent of Magnetic Resonance Imaging [MRI] however these occult lesions are achieving greater clinical importanc e being diagnosed much more frequently(5,6). We describe five cases of cavernous haemangiomas and discuss their clinical presentation and pr ognosis.