[Meningeal carcinomatosis: clinical and anatomical study of a case of suprarenal neuroblastoma (author's transl)].

A case of meningeal carcinomatosis associated with cerebral metastases from an adrenal neuroblastoma is described. The clinical picture was ushered-in by bilateral sciatic pain in a 50 years old female and was followed by rapidly progressive sensory-motor deficits of the arms and legs, leading to flaccid quadriplegia associated with paralysis of cranial nerves and episodes of mental confusion. Death occurred 4 months alter, in cardiac failure. At autopsy, a bilateral tumor of the adrenal glands was found. No metastases were detected anywhere except in the central nervous system. Histology identified the tumor as a neuroblastoma; meningeal carcinomatosis, radicular infiltration by tumor cells and parenchimal metastases were found in the central nervous system. Neuroblastoma is typically a tumor of childhood, only 13% of them being found in adult's according to Russell and Rubinstein. Meningeal metastases from adrenal neuroblastoma have not hitherto been reported in the literature. In our opinion, the most likely mode of spread of tumor cells to the central nervous system was hematogenous because of the presence of small multiple intraparenchimal metastases; however, possible spread through the perineural lymphatics, as proposed by others, cannot be excluded, due to the prominent localization of tumor cells at spinal roots level. The main differential diagnostic problems (paraneoplastic neuropathy (Wyburn-Mason) and infectious subacute or chronic meningitis) are discussed. The authors stress the emportance of complete cerebro-spinal fluid examination including a careful search for tumor cells.