[Tumor-induced medullary compression--experiences with 570 patients].

On the basis of patients treated at the Clinic for Neurosurgery in Leipzig in the period from 1952 to 1986 with a total of 570 suffering from spinal tumours, the nature of non-traumatic medullary compression is discussed, taking into consideration the relative frequency of the individual kinds of tumours as well as the distribution and the level of the location. The clinical aspects of medullary compression is elaborated, the differential-diagnostic of the demarkation possibilities between intra- and extramedullary tumour sites are discussed. In a retrospective consideration it must be stated that only 25 per cent of all patients with spinal tumours are operated on in an early stage (I and II) and only 60 per cent in the stage of incomplete transverse lesion of the with paraplegia (III). The remaining 15 per cent only get in the hands of the neurosurgeon in the stage of complete transverse lesion of the cord (IV). From this results the stringent conclusion to concentrate all efforts on the improvement of the early diagnosis.