Copyright © 2009 by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Benign and malignant tumors of the spinal column and spinal cord are a common and costly clinical problem, causing significant morbidity. Metastatic disease to the spine is the most common presentation; approximately 160 000 new spinal metastases are diagnosed in the United States each year, resulting in considerable pain, functional imp...

Background: Spinal meningiomas are frequent tumors and they may be associated with other tumors involving central nervous system or other systems, especially in the patients with some syndromes such as neurofibromatosis or multiple endocrine neoplasia. However, spinal angiolipomas are quite rare benign tumors, and they are generally solitary lesions. There is only one case whose spinal angiolip...

Introduction Spinal intradural lipoma is a rare condition, accounting for < 1% of all spinal cord tumors. Spinal cord lipomas are frequently associated with dysraphism and occur in the thoracic spine. Another common finding is that spinal cord lipomas tend to present in the pediatric population. Isolated nondysraphic cervical lipomas are a rare entity. We discuss a case of nondysraphic cervical...

Meningioma is considered as a benign central nervous system tumor that accounts for approximately 18% of all brain tumors. About 5% of meningioma tumors are malignant and have more aggressive clinical signs and worse prognosis compared to benign tumors. Extracranial metastasis of meningioma is rare but in the case of occurrence, it is more prevalent in lung, liver and lymph nodes. Osseous metas...

clear cell variant of ependymoma is almost exclusively located in the supratentorial region. only few cases of this tumor that located in the spinal cord have been reported. here we report one case of intramedullary clear cell ependymoma of the lumbar spinal cord. in microscopic examination, the tumor cells were round to oval with moderate amounts of clear cytoplasm and centrally located large ...

Although pediatric neurosurgery is relatively young as a formal subspecialty of general neurosurgery (the first meeting of the Section of Pediatric Neurological Surgery was held in 1972 and the American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery first met in 1978), it has been practiced for millennia. Trephined pediatric skulls were excavated in Peru and at other ancient sites.1 The father of neurosurge...

Primary spinal cord tumors constitute 2% to 4% of all central nervous system neoplasms and are characterized based on their location as intramedullary, intradural extramedullary, and extradural. A contemporary literature review of primary intradural spinal cord tumors was performed. Among intramedullary tumors, ependymomas are more common and often can be surgically resected. However, astrocyto...

pediatric cervicofacial actinomycosis is a rare occurrence consequent to dental infections and manipulations or maxillofacial trauma. the clinical presentation ranges from multiple draining sinuses to swellings resembling tumors and cysts. the present unusual case had congenital dermoid cyst of mid upper lip with actinomyces israelii infection identified on microscopy, culture, and histopatholo...

Pain is a significant problem in diseases affecting the spinal cord, including demyelinating disease. To date, studies have examined the reliability of clinical measures for assessing and classifying the severity of spinal cord injury (SCI) and also to evaluate SCI-related pain. Most of this research has focused on adult populations and patients with traumatic injuries. Little research exists r...

Spinal meningiomas are the most common of adult spinal tumors. Spinal meningiomas account for up to 45% of all intradural spinal tumors in adults and up to 25% of all spinal tumors. While spinal meningiomas are traditionally classified as intradural lesions, up to 14% may have an extradural component. Preoperative evaluation and directed use of imaging techniques are key in these rare but obser...