During a medical neuroscience course an unusual cyst in the brain of an 84-year-old female cadaver was found. The cyst extended bilaterally from the white matter of the parietal lobe along the internal capsule to the pons where it traveled through the middle cerebellar peduncle to disappear in the white matter of the cerebellum. The cyst occurred bilaterally but was much larger in the right cerebrum. A dense collection of brown hair was present as the cyst passed through the right middle cerebellar peduncle. Dermal cysts are thought to be the result of faulty neurulation resulting in the inclusion of epidermal ectoderm alongside presumptive neural tissue. Dermal cysts differ from epidermal cysts by the inclusion of sebaceous glandular tissue and hair follicles along with squamous epithelium within the developing nervous system.
