Background:
Altered mental status describes impaired mental functioning ranging from confusion to coma and indicates an illness, either metabolic or structural in nature. Metabolic causes include hypothyroidism, hyperuremia, hypo/hyperglycemia, hypo/hypernatremia, and encephalopathy. The structural causes include tumors, brain hemorrhage, infection, and stroke. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which a patient presented with altered mental status from both metabolic (myxedema coma) and structural diseases (frontal meningioma) with vasogenic edema and midline shift.
Case description:
A 55-year-old female presented with progressive coma. The clinical features included bradycardia and hypothermia. The imaging demonstrated a large frontal meningioma with a significant midline shift with laboratory findings suggestive of severe hypothyroidism and myxedema coma. Hypothyroidism was treated aggressively with intravenous T3 and T4 with close neurosurgical observation. Osmodiuretics and steroids were administered as temporizing agents prior to craniotomy. Craniotomy was successfully undertaken after using these appropriate pre-emptive measures.
Conclusions:
Management of concomitant metabolic encephalopathy and meningioma with vasogenic edema and impending herniation can be challenging. Correction of the encephalopathy is crucial to minimize perioperative morbidity and mortality. Awareness of metabolic causes of acute decompensation is critical for perioperative management, so a high index of clinical suspicion can make an important timely diagnosis for treatment initiation. Severely hypothyroid patients are sensitive to anesthetic agents and are at a high risk for perioperative complications. Prompt treatment prior to surgical intervention can help minimize perioperative complications.