Coexistence of a ganglioglioma and Rasmussen's encephalitis

A small number of recent reports have documented coexisting cerebral pathol ogic entities in patients with Rasmussen's encephalitis, We report the case of a 4-year-old boy who presented with refractory seizures and was found t o have both a ganglioglioma and Rasmussen's encephalitis of the same hemisp here. The patient ultimately underwent a functional hemispherectomy with ex cellent seizure control. We also review the clinical and pathologic hallmar ks of both gangliogliomas and Rasmussen's encephalitis, We hope that the ad dition of this patient to the small but growing literature on dual patholog y in Rasmussen's encephalitis may help shed some light on the etiology of t h is mysterious disease.