Isolated III cranial nerve palsies may point to primary histiocytic sarcoma.

Primary histiocytic sarcoma (HS) of the central nervous system (CNS) is a rare haematopoietic neoplasm. The inconsistent terminology and diagnostic criteria currently used for CNS HS have complicated the appreciation of the clinical aspects of the disease. The main differential diagnoses are non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, reactive histiocytic proliferation, dendritic cell neoplasm, undifferentiated carcinoma, inflammatory pseudotumour, Rosai-Dorfman disease and abscess. The true diagnosis of CNS HS requires an extensive immunophenotypic workup using specific histiocytic markers, such as CD163, with the exclusion of markers of other cell lineages. This clinicopathological case report describes an improved approach towards the differential diagnosis of CNS HS. 2014 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.