INTRACRANIAL PLASMA-CELL GRANULOMA PRESENTING AS AN OPTIC NEUROPATHY

A 40-year-old man presented with a left optic neuropathy. Magnetic res onance imaging demonstrated a contrast-enhancing mass along the course of the left trigeminal nerve and in the region of the left cavernous sinus with suprasellar extension. Preoperatively, he had a serum polyc lonal gammopathy. Pathologic diagnosis was an intracranial plasma cell granuloma. The patient responded to high-dose steroids with resolutio n of his optic neuropathy, marked decrease in the size of the mass, an d resolution of the serum polyclonal gammopathy. Intracranial plasma c ell granuloma is a rare lesion; only 11 cases have been described in t he literature. Almost half of the patients presented with vision loss as their chief complaint.