Re: Arachnoid Cyst

Posted By CCF neuro MD MM on November 13, 1998 at 15:39:33:

In Reply to: Arachnoid Cyst posted by Therese on November 08, 1998 at 21:23:57:






My husband recently was told that he had this called cyst.  This came about after either falling asleep at the wheel at a stop sign or he had a seizure. He had an eeg akg, tested for sleep apnea and an MRI.  All were negative except that I persued the sleep apnea.  He is now using a Cpap machine.  Ine the meen time the results of the MRI came back and he was told he had a very large arachnoid cyst on the top left fron of his brain.  He was told it was in a spot that affected nothing.  He was also told that it did not need to be monitored that he should just forget about it.  I, the wife though began to look on the internet and became worried with what I read.  I have not discussed this with my husband because he is trying to just forget about it.  The Cpap machine is helping  because he was not getting a good night slep and he wants to just hope that that  was the problem.  The neurologist spoke to him and said that he felt he was taking care of the problem with the sleep apnea and to really try and forget about it.  Please Help me to also forget by giving me some reassuring info.  I am tempted to talk to the neurologist myself about my findings.  I would do this without my husband knowing.  Thanks for any info.




An arachnoid cyst is simply a fluid filled space in the brain, in the frontal lobes which is where you seem to be describing the cyst there are hardly ever any problems.
Many people have these cysts all of their lives and they do not cause any problems until they are detected on a scan performed for another reason.
Nothing is done with these cysts as they are simply fluid filled spaces, if you tried to cut it out you would be still left with a fluid filled space , only larger !!
This would not cause a loss of conciousness as you describe, and if the EEG was normal it was unlikely to have caused a seizure.
I would agree with your neurologist that you should both forget this, he has had the benefit of seeing the scan and it is obviously in a silent area of the brain which does not serve a vital specific function.