CONTEXT: Malignant neural sheath tumors of the trigeminal nerve affecting the nasal cavity and the paranasal sinuses are extremely rare. With conventional optical microscopy, their identifi cation is diffi cult, and it is necessary to confi rm them by means of electron microscopy and immunohistochemical techniques.
CASE REPORT:The patient was a 41-year-old woman with a ten-month progressive history of pain followed by painful edema in the left facial region, and with symptoms of bleeding, secretion and nasal obstruction. Studies with imaging methods suggested the presence of an expansive process in the left nasal and paranasal cavities. In the biopsy, the histopathological fi ndings from optical microscopy were suggestive of a tumor of neural origin in the trigeminal nerve. Immunohistochemical and electron microscopy studies confi rmed that it was a malignant tumor of the neural sheath of the trigeminal nerve. We describe the clinical, radiological, and histological features of this tumor and review the literature.
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