‘Hole’ in man’s brain turns out to be massive air pocket

A pensioner who went to his GP complaining of balance problems turned out to have an air pocket inside his skull so large that doctors initially thought part of his brain was missing.

The 84-year-old, from Northern Ireland, sought help from his doctor after experiencing frequent falls and a weakness in his left arm and leg.

He was not suffering from any other symptoms and doctors did not find anything unusual in the patient’s medical history or blood work.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

However, after a CT scan of the man’s brain was ordered, “doctors were shocked to see what appeared to be a gaping hole”, says CBS.

What looked like a hole turned out to be an air-filled pocket called a pneumatocoele, which had been compressing the man’s brain tissue.

The man’s physician, Dr. Finlay Brown and co-author Dr. Djamil Vahidassr documented the case in a recent edition of the journal BMJ Case Reports.

In the report, the doctors point out that these kinds of air cavities are most common in people who have had facial injuries, sinus or ear infections or have undergone brain surgery.

“I don't think I will see another case like this again in my career,” Brown said. “Having air in the brain is not extremely rare but to have such a large organised pocket like this is not seen very often.”