Non-traumatic cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea indirectly caused by remote brain tumor: a case report and review of the literature

Non-traumatic cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea indirectly caused by a remote brain tumor has rarely been reported. Here we describe a case of non-traumatic cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea that occurred as the initial symptom of a posterior falx meningioma. In addition, based on the period of occurrence of cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea before or after the tumor operation, we introduced a novel classification for these cases into pre-treatment and post-treatment types. The findings of the present case and the results of our literature research suggest that different treatments should be used for patients with these two types of non-traumatic cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea resulting from remote brain tumor. After tumor excision, patients of the pre-treatment type may receive conservative management or cerebrospinal fluid shunting, while patients of the post-treatment type need direct repair of the fistula.