please help... my daughter has an arachnoid cyst

[babylily07]

my daughter is 10 months old and doctors found an arachnoid cyst on the brain thru a CT scan when she was 8 months old. now were are waiting on mri results... when she was about 2 months old she had a sonogram of her head because doctors said her head was a bit big and doctors didn't find nothing...  she also had a spinal tab done when she was about 5 months old when she developed a high fever and still nothing was found..when I found out thru the CT scan about the cyst,  the doctors just kept telling me its a deformity she was born...  with but why wouldn't it show up on the sonogram or the spinal tab tests?........now I keep hearing and seeing on different websites that the cyst is nothing to be really concerned about... how can I not be concerned when we are talking about my daughter? what should I really be concerned about and its it dangerous to have an arachnoid cyst?

[Dr_Smita_S]

Hi.

I can understand your concern about your daughter. Here is some information which I can provide you with.

Arachnoid cysts are developmental malformations in the brain, which usually remain asymptomatic even if the cyst is quite large. They are generally incidental findings on MRI scans.

If a person having these cysts suffers a minor head trauma, sometimes this can result into complications related to raised intracranial pressure and nerve compression such a headache, visual disturbances, seizures, weakness or paralysis on one half of the body) and loss of muscle control. Frontal arachnoid cysts have been associated with depression.

Treatment is however controversial. There is difference of opinion among clinicians whether to treat only patients with symptomatic cysts or even asymptomatic patients also require treatment.

You should discuss treatment options with your neurosurgeon, which may include anything from no intervention to surgical decompression to excision of the cyst to avoid development of any later complications.

Hope it helps.

Take care