When a patient is identified with an asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss a MRI is required to exclude the presence of a lesion affecting the nerve of hearing and balance.
The commonest lesion found is a vestibular schwannoma. A rare differential diagnosis is a lipoma of the internal auditory canal.
These scans show a small nodule within the left internal auditory canal. The lesion highlights on T1 without contrast, and disappears on a T1 with contrast with fat suppression confirming the lesion is a lipoma.