Hemiparkinsonism in a patient with frontal meningioma

We report on a 44-year-old woman with a right frontal meningioma, who presented with resting tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia in the left limbs. There were no other neuroslogic manifestations. A computed tomography scan demonstrated a huge high-density mass in the right frontal lobe and marked surrounding edema causing compression of the basal ganglia. Cerebral angiography showed a typical sunburst tumor stain and three feeding vessels from the bilateral middle meningeal arteries and the right callosomarginal artery. The pathologic diagnosis was transitional type meningioma. Before surgery, treatment with levodopa and bromocriptine was significantly effective in controlling hemiparkinsonism, which completely disappeared after surgical removal of the tumor. This outcome supports the notion that local compression due to edema may cause a functional disorder in the basal ganglia producing reversible contralateral parkinsonism.