Olfactory meningiomas. The missed diagnosis
L. Bakay
Olfactory meningiomas are benign, slow-growing intracranial tumors arising
from the dura along the cribriform plate. The first clinical symptom is
anosmia followed, usually after several years, by dementia and visual
deterioration. A series of 36 patients are presented; in all cases but one,
their conditions were diagnosed late and not until the tumor had reached a
very large size. By the time the proper diagnosis was made and the tumors
were surgically removed, mental or visual disability was often
irreversible. Conditions of patients initially seen with anosmia should be
investigated by presently available noninvasive diagnostic methods
including computed tomographic scanning.
