Patients with spinal abnormalities infrequently present with intradural intramedullary bleeding. The more common causes include spinal trauma, arteriovenous malformations and saccular aneurysms of spinal arteries. On occasion, spinal cord tumors either primary or metastatic may cause intramedullary bleed with ependymoma of the conus medullaris. Spinal nerve sheath tumors such as schwannomas onl...

Granular cell tumors (GrCTs) of the spinal cord are rare benign tumors with a high rate of local recurrence. Only 6 cases of spinal GrCTs have been reported. GrCT is difficult to distinguish from other benign tumors such as schwannoma using imaging. A radiological "speckled dots" sign may be a useful differentiating feature of GrCT based upon experience with two cases and a review of the litera...

Objective. Primary intramedullary spinal germ cell tumors are exceedingly rare. As such, there are no established treatment paradigms. We describe our management for spinal germ cell tumors and a review of the literature. Clinical Presentation. We describe the case of a 45-year-old man with progressive lower extremity weakness and sensory deficits. He was found to have enhancing intramedullary ...

Characteristics of spinal cord gliomas Spinal cord gliomas comprised 20% of intraspinal tumors of all types in a large surgical series (Table 1) [1]. These tumors share several characteristics with cerebral gliomas. Spinal gliomas use the same histopathological classi®cation as gliomas of the cerebral hemispheres, such as astrocytoma and ependymoma. Determination of tumor grade is useful in pre...

Meningiomas are typically benign, slowly growing tumors. Meningiomas of the spine are most commonly intradural, extramedullary lesions and account of 25% – 46% of all spinal cord tumors in adults (Peker et al., 2005). Approximately 80% of spinal meningiomas occur in the thoracic spine, followed in frequency by cervical and lumbar lesions (Helseth et al., 1989; Levy et al., 1982; Roux et al., 19...

Primary spinal primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs) are very rare conditions. Most of these tumors occur in children and young adults. A 63-year-old man with a primary spinal PNET in the conus medullaris from the L1 to L2 level is presented in this report. The optimal treatment of primary spinal PNETs is yet unknown. Surgical resection, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy have been advocate...

Surgery for spinal intramedullary tumors remains one of the major challenges for neurosurgeons, due to their relative infrequency, unknown natural history, and surgical difficulty. We are sure that safe and precise resection of spinal intramedullary tumors, particularly encapsulated benign tumors, can result in acceptable or satisfactory postoperative outcomes. General surgical concepts and str...

The diagnosis, localization, and characterization of spinal cord tumors can be difficult even in this modern era of computed tomography (CT). Although magnetic resonance imaging offers the potential for accurate spinal cord imaging, at present myelography and CT with intravenous or intrathecal contrast material are the mainstays in the diagnosis and localization of spinal cord tumors. The preop...

Spinal tumors consist of a large spectrum of various histologic entities. Multiple spinal lesions frequently represent known metastatic disease or lymphoproliferative disease. In solitary lesions primary neoplasms of the spine should be considered. Primary spinal tumors may arise from the spinal cord, the surrounding leptomeninges, or the extradural soft tissues and bony structures. A wide vari...

BACKGROUND Metastatic spinal tumors are common and major causes of pathological spinal fractures that result in severe pain, weakness, and progressive neurological deficits. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) in pain-relief in patients with spinal fractures due to metastatic spinal tumors. METHODS We evaluated 25 documented cases of metastatic spinal...