Familial occurrence of intracerebral cavernous angioma: Report of cases in brothers

Familial occurrence of intracerebral cavernous angioma has been rarely reported. We report two histologically verified cases of cavernous angioma among brothers and review relevant cases in the literature. Case 1 is that of a 3-year-old boy who suffered from acute onset of headache, vomiting, and tonic-clonic type seizure, CT revealed a well-demarcated tumor with partial hemorrhage in the left frontal lobe which was strongly enhanced with contrast medium. Complete excision was carried out and the patient had a satisfactory clinical course and was able to be followed up for 13 years after the surgery. Case 2 is that of a 17-year-old boy who has the elder brother of case 1 and presented with gradually increasing episodes of a psychomotor seizure which started at the age of 16. CT and MRI revealed a well-demarcated tumor in the left subcortical temporal lobe and an asymptomatic small calcified lesion in the left subcortical parietal lobe. The temporal tumor was totally excised and histologically diagnosed as cavernous angioma. The seizures gradually decreased and eventually disappeared one-year after the surgery. This report reviews 13 previously reported cases and surgical indication for asymptomatic cases.