Unilateral Internal Cerebral Vein Thrombosis: Case Reports and Review of the Literature

The purpose of this manuscript is to present two cases of unilateral internal cerebral vein thrombosis (UICVT) and use them to review the typical imaging findings and clinical presentation, provide a differential diagnosis when presented with a unilateral thalamic lesion, and discuss current literature findings of internal cerebral vein thrombosis, including the interesting trend of left-sided involvement. Two cases of UICVT were gathered from our institutions. A literature review was then conducted, and cases in the literature were compared to look for common features. Both of our cases involved the left internal cerebral vein. A total of 7 cases of unilateral and 8 cases of bilateral internal cerebral vein thrombosis were reviewed from the literature. Of the unilateral cases, all but one were on the left, and the one on the right was in a patient with right-sided malignancy after surgical resection. Most of these cases completely resolved with anticoagulation. UICVT is an extremely rare entity, with less than 10 cases reported in the literature. The prognosis of this disease is excellent if diagnosed and treated early; however, with delayed diagnosis and treatment, this process can be fatal. This highlights the importance of keeping this diagnosis on the differential when presented with a unilateral thalamic lesion.