Audiovestibular findings in a 6 year old child with pilocytic astrocytoma - a case report.

Pilocytic astrocytoma commonly occurs in children and depending on the extension of the lesion may cause varied audiovestibular dysfunctions. However, audiovestibular findings are scarcely reported in the literature. Audiovestibular testing was performed on a single subject on two occasions pre-surgically. A 6 year old girl with pilocytic astrocytoma. All audiological tests revealed normal findings except for the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing (cVEMP). The amplitude of cVEMP was higher in the lesion side indicating a hypersensitive vestibulocollic reflex pathway functioning. This case study reported a unique finding of hypersensitive cVEMP findings in the lesion side in a patient with pilocytic astrocytoma. The pathophysiological basis for this hypersensitivity is attributed to anatomical connections between the cerebellum and the vestibular nuclei through the inferior cerebellar peduncle.