The Distinctive Headache of the Occipital Condyle Syndrome: A Report of Four Cases

Abstract

Four examples of occipital condyle syndrome, that is, unilateral occipital pain and ipsilateral tongue paralysis due to selective erosion of the occipital condyle, are reported. The four patients complained of a continuous, severe, unilateral, occipital pain which kept them with the head rotated to the side of the pain and held with their hands. The pain became unbearable with head rotation to the nonpainful side and with unilateral suboccipital palpation. The onset of this very characteristic unilateral headache antedated by as long as 2 1/2 months the ipsilateral hypoglossal paralysis. The occipital condyle syndrome may be the first manifestation of cancer or of chronic inflammatory lesions; recognition of this distinctive headache enables the clinical diagnosis to be made.

Occipital Condyle Syndrome in a Young Male: A Rare Presentation of Cranio-Vertebral Tuberculosis

“…The commonest association of OCS is with metastases to skull-base and primary head and neck tumors [1][2][3][4][5]. In the largest published series of 100 patients with 12th nerve paresis (Keane et al,), malignancy accounted for 49% cases; whereas trauma, infection, stroke and GBS were responsible for the remaining cases [6].…”

Wegener’s Disease Presenting with Occipital Condyle Syndrome

“…The occipital condyle syndrome has been associated with metastases to the base of the skull and primary head and neck tumors (Greenberg et al, 1981; Moris et al, 1998; Capobianco et al, 2002). The largest case series ever reported about CN XII palsy indicated that almost half of these cases are due to malignancies (Keane, 1996).…”

Occipital condyle syndrome as the first sign of skull metastasis from lung cancer

“…[12345] We herein present an extremely rare case of OCS which occurred as the first sign of skull metastasis from lung cancer.…”

“…[12345] The pain can be successfully controlled with radiotherapy if it is delivered early to the patients with OCS caused by skull metastasis. [13] Only a minority of patients with skull metastasis are candidates for surgical resection; however, in patients without known systemic cancer, a biopsy is useful to establish the diagnosis because OCS is not always secondary to malignant diseases. [25]…”