Spinal rhabdomyosarcoma in a child at the site of a lumbosacral lipoma: a rare entity.

Malignant tumours arising at the site of closed neural tube defects are extremely rare and have only been described three times in the literature. We report the case of a child with a congenital lumbosacral lipoma, a dermal sinus tract and low-lying spinal cord who was initially treated non-operatively due in part to non-attendance and who then presented at 2 years of age with recurrent urinary tract infections with intermittent pyrexia, back pain and difficulty walking. A craniospinal MRI was performed with suspicion of infection at the site of the closed neural tube defect (in view of the dermal sinus tract) and leptomeningeal spread to the rest of the spine and brain.