Background:
Cavernous malformations (CMs) confined to the cranial nerves (CN) are extremely rare lesions.
Case description:
The authors report 2 cases of CMs, one involving the trigeminal nerve presenting with a 3 years history of a refractory right trigeminal neuralgia that was microsurgically resected by a retromastoid approach with resolution of the neuralgia; and another CM involving the chiasma with an abrupt onset of vision loss with acute intralesional bleeding that was removed through a right pterional approach with vision improvement.
Conclusion:
Surgical resection is recommended in the context of progressive significant neurological deficit, emergency decompression as a result of recent hemorrhage for symptomatic relief or increase in size on serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).