Central nervous system involvement
Lymphoma can compromise our central nervous system and produce various symptoms according to its location, size and invasiveness. The most common symptom is headache on lying down and after waking up from sleep, but also nausea with or without vomiting, diplopia, decrease in the level of consciousness, hearing problems, papilledema, loss of pupillary light reflex, and apathy.
Patients may also have localized symptoms due to the compression of a region of the brain. They include weakness, sensory deficits, executive dysfunction, ataxia, and cranial neuropathies. Compression of the brain stem can result in fatal health conditions, such as cardiac and respiratory failure. Compression of the spinal cord can result in the Brown Sequard syndrome, characterized by loss of pain sensation, light touch, and temperature on the contralateral side, and weakness or complete loss of motor function, vibratory sensations and proprioception in the same side of the lesion. If the tumor continues to affect the spinal cord, it can cause anal and urinary sphincter dysfunction and incontinence, or progress to paraparesis or quadriparesis.