Spinal cord tumors lead to neurological morbidity and mortality. Being able obtain morphometric quantification (size, location, growth rate) of the tumor, edema, cavity can result in improved monitoring treatment planning. Such requires segmentation these structures into three separate classes. However, manual three-dimensional is time consuming, tedious prone intra- inter-rater variability, mo...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Preoperative embolization of primary and metastatic spinal tumors is often performed to decrease intraoperative blood loss and facilitate surgical resection. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of spinal tumor embolization and the variables that may influence intraoperative blood loss. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of 100 spinal tumor e...

BACKGROUND The spine is the most common site of skeletal metastases. The evolution of surgical methods, medical treatment, and radiation therapy has led to improved survival, functional status, and quality of life for patients with cancer. The role of surgery in the treatment of patients with spinal metastases has evolved over time. METHODS A review of publications describing the role of open...

BACKGROUND Spinal osteochondromas are typically benign tumors, but patients may present with myelopathy and neurologic deficits if there is tumor encroachment within the spinal canal. CASE DESCRIPTION We report here a case of a large solitary osteochondroma originating from the posterior vertebral body of T9 causing spinal cord compression and myelopathy. A 17-year-old man presented with 3 mo...

Primary spinal glioblastoma multiforme (spinal GBM) is not a very common entity. This paper presents an outline of this rare neoplasm, its clinical presentation, course, management and outcome and reports a 3-case series of spinal GBM. In this 3-case series with spinal GBM, one of the patients was operated for hydrocephalous 10 months later following the tumor surgery and another patient had ce...

AIM Spinal angiolipoma is a benign uncommon neoplasm composed of mature lipocytes admixed with abnormal blood vessels, and accounts for only 0.14-1.2% of all spinal tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS Retrospective data analysis. RESULTS We report two cases of a 64-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man with thoracic myelopathy due to spinal angiolipoma. Magnetic resonance imaging showed isointensit...

PURPOSE Standard treatment of asymptomatic spinal cord hemangioblastoma in von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease has yet to be established. The purpose of this study was to propose guidelines for the treatment of asymptomatic spinal cord hemangioblastomas in VHL disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS VHL disease patients treated for spinal cord hemangioblastomas between 1999 and 2009 were included. All spi...

The relative effectiveness of plain computed tomography (CT), metrizamide CT, conventional myelography, and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was compared for the examination of cystic spinal cord lesions. Intramedullary cavities in 18 patients were demonstrated by MR imaging: cavities were uncomplicated in 13 patients, associated with spinal tumors in two, and studied after occipital craniectomy...

A 63-year-old man presented with a rare metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) involving the lumbosacral spine and causing nerve root compression. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging revealed an extradural soft tissue mass at the L5-S1 levels. The tumor was subtotally removed and chemotherapy was administered, but he died of multiple metastases from the primary epigastric tumor. Lumbosacral metasta...

OBJECTIVE This study is to report our experience of 40 cases of spinal schwannoma. METHODS From 1995 to 2006, medical records were retrospectively reviewed in 40 cases of spinal schwannoma. RESULTS We treated 40 spinal schwannomas in 38 (22 male and 16 female) patients. The mean age was 50.2. Four cases were sited in the cervical spine, 11 cases in the thoracic spine, and 25 cases in the lu...