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Case Report Describes Rare Benign Tumor in Young Man

Doctors found an olfactory schwannoma during imaging after a fall, and the patient's sense of smell remained intact after surgery.

Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Stroke

Isometric editorial illustration of a pale sphere nested inside an ivory skull-base form on a cream field, with a thin olive-green line extending outward.
A 19-year-old man's rare benign skull-base tumor, found after a fall, was fully removed in surgery and his sense of smell was preserved. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Doctors found a benign olfactory schwannoma in a 19-year-old man while imaging a fractured arm after a fall. The case was described in January 2026 in Clinical Medicine Insights: Case Reports.

Why it matters

Only 77 cases of olfactory schwannoma had been reported, so each documented case adds to limited medical knowledge of this rare tumor. The report shows that complete surgical removal through a bifrontal craniotomy can preserve smell in the patient.

The case report is a single documented patient, with the tumor measuring about 5 by 5 by 2 centimeters and only 77 olfactory schwannomas previously reported in the literature. It is not yet known whether this surgical approach and outcome would hold for other patients, as the report covers only six months of follow-up.

The players

Clinical Medicine Insights: Case Reports

A peer-reviewed medical journal that publishes case reports describing individual patient presentations and clinical findings.

Bohlool Hospital, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences

A teaching hospital in Iran affiliated with Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, where the authors of the case report practiced.

The details

A 19-year-old man fell from a height and had imaging that showed a fractured radius but no skull fracture or brain bleeding. The imaging also revealed a tumor at the front of the skull base, which surgeons completely removed through a bifrontal craniotomy. Pathology confirmed a benign olfactory schwannoma, and the patient went home on the seventh day with his sense of smell normal.

Timeline

  1. January 2026: The case was described in Clinical Medicine Insights: Case Reports.

  2. Day 7 after surgery: The patient was discharged home with normal sense of smell.

  3. Six months after surgery: MRI showed no recurrence and smell remained intact.

Big Picture

The case matches the World Health Organization's classification of schwannomas as benign nerve-sheath tumors, adding one more documented olfactory example to a literature of only 77 prior reports. It extends the existing body of case reports on this rare tumor rather than changing how it is classified.

For people who have a sense-of-smell change or a skull-base mass, the case shows that imaging ordered for another injury can reveal a benign tumor. Surgical removal through a bifrontal approach preserved smell in this patient, though the outcome for others may differ.

The takeaway

Imaging done for one problem can uncover an unrelated tumor, and rare benign findings like this one are best understood through detailed case reports. Anyone with unexplained changes in smell should discuss them with a clinician.

Further reading

Explore more on Stroke to see how brain and skull-base conditions are tracked and treated.

Source note: This article includes information reported by Medical Daily.

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