Malignant triton tumor of the acoustic nerve

The authors present the clinical, radiological, pathological features, and autopsy findings of a patient with malignant triton tumor of the acoustic nerve, which probably arose from a pre-existing acoustic schwannoma. The term "malignant triton tumor" is applied to malignant schwannomas with rhabdomyoblastic differentiation. A cerebellopontine angle tumor with spinal drop metastasis occurred in this patient 10 months after near-total removal of the original tumor.