Differential diagnoses of cerebral hemiatrophy in childhood: a review of literature with illustrative report of two cases

Childhood cerebral hemiatrophy is an uncommon clinical entity. Its aetiologies are diverse but can generally be grouped into congenital and acquired. The congenital type is intrauterine in origin while the acquired type occurs early in life, usually before two year of life. When childhood cerebral hemiatrophy occurs, it evokes a spectrum of compensatory calvarial sequlae. These include ipsilateral calvarial thickening, diploe widening, hyper-pneumatization of paranasal sinues/ mastoids, elevation of petrous bone and small middle cranial fossa. MRI is very effective in high lightening brain atrophy, associated parenchymal changes and even the above enumerated skull changes. Our two case reports of left hemi-cerebral atrophy in male Cameroonian children seen in our MRI practice aptly demonstrated some of the aforementioned radiological features of childhood cerebral hemiatrophy noted in literature review.