Preoperative Diagnosis of a Central Skull Base Giant Schwannoma From Tumoral Microhemorrhages Visualized on Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging

A 64-year-old female presented with extensive osseous erosion of the central skull base from a large tumor, which was evaluated with a combination of CT and MRI. Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) aided the correct preoperative diagnosis of giant skull base schwannoma by demonstrating intratumoral microhemorrhages, later confirmed on histology. Other imaging features on CT and MRI were not helpful to identify the schwannoma in this case.