Posterior Skull Base

Posterior skull base lesions may be found incidentally or during targeted clinical workup for lower cranial neuropathies and include congenital, inflammatory, neoplastic, or benign “do-not-touch” etiologies. CT and MRI are the main imaging modalities for further characterization of these lesions. Advanced imaging such as PET/CT with Ga-687-labeled DOTA peptides is particularly useful in confirming the diagnosis and elucidating the disease extent for paragangliomas. This chapter aims to discuss the imaging findings and distinguishing features of the most commonly encountered posterior skull base lesions.