Intracranial neurinomas of the jugular foramen and hypoglossal canal

Intracranial neurinomas of the jugular foramen and the hypoglossal canal are relatively rare. Most reports have been of either single cases or of only two or three patients, and few large series exist in the literature. Although some of these tumors present palsies of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh cranial nerves as a jugular foramen syndrome, this is not always present. Unexpectedly, symptoms involving the eighth nerve are more frequently than those of ninth, tenth and eleventh nerves. This variability of clinical symptoms frequently leads to an initial misdiagnosis of glomus jugulare, acoustic or hypoglossal neurinoma. We report 2 cases of jugular foramen neurinomas and 2 cases of hypoglossal neurinomas. Our review of literature has tabulated 92 jugular foramen neurinomas and 34 hypoglossal neurinomas. These neurinomas had become considerably large in size by the time they were detected. So, we should endeavor, by clinical or neuroradiological finding to detect them at the early stage when they exert less influence on the brain. In this series we discuss clinical pictures of these neurinomas.