Surgical Treatment of Spinal Ependymomas: Experience in 49 Patients.

Background: Ependymomas are rare central nervous system tumors. Local tumor distribution in the central nervous system depends on age: among adults, ependymomas occur mostly in the spinal cord, whereas among children, intracranial manifestations are more common. To date, there are no prospective studies about treatment strategies for ependymomas.

Conus Medullaris Arachnoid Cyst Presenting as Cauda Equina Syndrome.

Intradural arachnoid cysts are a rare cause of spinal cord and nerve root compression. Primarily, they are present in the thoracic region posteriorly. We report a 25-year-old man who had an intradural arachnoid cyst at the level of conus medullaris presenting with cauda equina syndrome, which is very rare.

Dual lumbar bronchogenic and arachnoid cyst presenting with sciatica and left foot drop.

Introduction: Spinal bronchogenic cysts are rare findings, with only four cases of lumbar bronchogenic cysts reported in the literature. All of these bronchogenic cysts involved the conus medullaris. We present the first case of a lumbar bronchogenic cyst and arachnoid cyst arising from the cauda equina in a 68-year-old male.

Spontaneous Hemorrhage of a Spinal Ependymoma in the Filum Terminale Presenting with Acute Cauda Equina Syndrome: Case Report.

We present a rare case of spontaneous hemorrhage of a spinal ependymoma in the filum terminale presenting with acute cauda equina syndrome. A 16-year-old male presented with a sudden onset of severe back pain that began 10 days before hospitalization. This symptom progressed, followed by development of decreased sensation in the lower extremities, bladder dysfunction, and motor weakness that advanced to an inability to walk.

Less Is More: Efficacy of Rapid 3D-T2 SPACE in ED Patients with Acute Atypical Low Back Pain.

Rationale And Objectives: Emergency department (ED) patients with acute low back pain (LBP) may present with ambiguous clinical findings that pose diagnostic challenges to exclude cauda equina syndrome (CES). As a proof of concept, we aimed to determine the efficacy of a rapid lumbar spine (LS) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening protocol consisting of a single 3D-T2 SPACE FS (3D-T2 Sampling Perfection with Application optimized Contrasts using different flip angle Evolution fat saturated) sequence relative to conventional LS MRI to exclude emergently treatable pathologies in this complex patient population.

Materials And Methods: LS MRI protocol including a sagittal 3D-T2 SPACE FS pulse sequence was added to the routine for ED patients presenting with acute atypical LBP over a 12-month period.

Surgical management of solitary nerve sheath tumors originating around the epiconus or conus medullaris: a retrospective case analysis based on neurological function.

The objective of this retrospective case analysis was to evaluate the surgical impact on neurological functional recovery in cases of solitary spinal nerve sheath tumors (NSTs) originating around the epiconus, conus medullaris, or cauda equina and not associated with neurofibromatosis. This 10-year surgical study included 30 cases of spinal NSTs originating around the spine level of T12-L1 (epiconus-to-conus medullaris: Epi-CM group), and 15 cases of spinal NSTs originating below the spine level of L2 (cauda equina: CE group). A minimally invasive posterior unilateral approach was applied in 22 of 30 subjects in the Epi-CM group and in 14 of 15 subjects in the CE group.

Primary Seeding of Myxopapillary Ependymoma: Different Disease in Adult Population? Case Report and Review of Literature.

Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is a slow-growing tumor, occurring most often in adults. It originates from the filum terminale in the area of the conus medullaris and cauda equina and is considered a benign lesion. Despite this classification, however, recurrence after both partial and gross total resection is well known.

Long standing lumbosacral dermoid tumor and intracranial fat droplet dissemination: A case report.

Background: Dermoid tumors are slow growing, benign CNS lesions.

Case Description: This case study concerns a 29-year-old female with a 6-year history of lower extremity paresthesias attributed to magnetic resonance (MR)/computed tomography (CT) documented intradural dermoid tumor that extended from L1 to S1. On MR, it was hypointense on T1, hyperintense on T2, and did not enhance with gadolinium.

Outcome Analysis in Cases of Spinal Conus Cauda Ependymoma.

Introduction: One half of all central nervous system ependymomas, arise within the spinal canal and about 40% of these arise from filum terminale. The myxopapillary variant of spinal ependymoma almost exclusively occurs in the lumbosacral region and they are histologically designated as Grade I. Long term control is best achieved by gross total removal at the initial operation.

Spinal myxopapillary ependymoma with interval drop metastasis presenting as cauda equina syndrome: case report and review of literature.

Myxopapillary ependymoma is a benign slow-growing tumour, arising predominantly in the region of the filum terminale. It has been designated histologically as grade I neoplasm according to the 2007 WHO classification. Despite this benign character dissemination and metastasis along the cerebrospinal axis and metastasis to distant sites have occasionally been reported.

Mobile spinal enterogenous cyst resulting in intermittent paraplegia in a child: case report.

The authors report the case of a mobile spinal enterogenous cyst in a 2-year-old boy, who was admitted to the hospital several times for intermittent paraplegia. Magnetic resonance imaging and CT revealed an isolated cyst in the lumbar spinal canal. The symptoms were caused by transient myelopathy of the conus medullaris and radiculopathy of the cauda equina due to the changing size and location of the cyst.

Concomitant Double Tumors of Myxopapillary Ependymoma Presented at Cauda Equina-Filum Terminale in Adult Patient.

A 32-year-old man presented with gradually increasing bilateral buttock pain. He had intermittent claudication. Multiple, homogenously enhanced intradural extramedullary lesions at L2-L3 and L5-S1 levels were observed on magnetic resonance imaging.

Spinal lipoma of the filum terminale: review of 174 consecutive patients.

Purpose: Spinal lipoma of the filum terminale (LFT) is a congenital lumbosacral anomaly that can cause tethered cord syndrome. Purposes of this study are to clarify preoperative characteristics of LFT, to elucidate surgical effects, and to discuss the rationale of prophylactic surgery for LFT.

Methods: Medical data of 174 children (2008-2014) who underwent section of LFT were prospectively recorded for prevalence of symptoms, skin stigmas, and associated malformations, motivator of diagnosis, conus level, and surgical outcome.

Surgical treatment for posttraumatic hemorrhage inside a filum terminale myxopapillary ependymoma: a case report and literature review.

Purpose: Symptoms of cauda equina syndrome due to ependymoma in the conus medullaris or filum terminale develop slowly. However, hemorrhagic change inside spinal tumors can induce acute neurologic decline. Here, we report a case of posttraumatic hemorrhage inside a filum terminale myxopapillary ependymoma presenting as acute neurologic decline, which had a positive prognosis after surgical resection.

Anaplastic extramedullary cervical ependymoma with leptomeningeal metastasis.

We present a rare extramedullary ependymoma with diffuse spinal metastatic disease, and review the previous reports of extramedullary spinal ependymomas. Ependymomas are the most common intramedullary spinal cord tumor in adults. These tumors rarely present as extramedullary masses.

Neoplastic cauda equina syndrome: a neuroimaging-based review.

Cauda equina syndrome refers to dysfunction of the cauda equina, the collection of ventral and dorsal lumbar, sacral and coccygeal nerve roots that surround the filum terminale. This most commonly occurs as a result of compression by a herniated lumbosacral disc. However, the syndrome may also complicate metastatic cancer or a primary neoplasm within or infiltrating the spinal canal.

Unspecific clinical manifestation of cauda equina myxopapillary ependymoma.

A 9-year-old boy admitted to the neurosurgical hospital complaining of headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, and weakness in the arms and legs, urinary retention. Previously, the patient had a treatment of pediatricians. He was examined, magnetic resonance imaging revealed the tumor of the conus medullaris and cauda equina.

[Radiotherapy for Alleviation of Paraparesis due to Leptomeningeal and Cauda Equina Metastasis of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: A Case Report].

Leptomeningeal metastasis is a rare entity and its diagnosis is often difficult. Moreover, evidence-based therapeutic strategies have not yet been established. A 52-year-old woman presented with high fever and was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis at first examination;although her fever was alleviated, she experienced motor weakness in both of her lower extremities.

Spinal ependymomas. Part 2: Ependymomas of the filum terminale.

OBJECT Ependymomas of the filum terminale provide specific surgical challenges due to their often enormous size, contact with nerve roots of the cauda equina and conus, and potential for subarachnoid dissemination. This study presents treatment results for these tumors over a 30-year period. METHODS Among 1447 patients with tumors of the spinal canal treated between 1980 and 2014, 618 patients presented with extramedullary tumors.

Mobile lumbar spine ependymoma: case report and review of literature.

Migrating intra-spinal lesions are quite rare, and are most of the reported cases are schwannomas. Several theories have been proposed to explain the changing location of an intra-spinal tumor. We present a very rare case of migrating lumbar intra-spinal intra-dural lesion at the conus level, the pathology of which was an ependymoma, and review the possible etiologies of such a unique occurrence in view of the reported literature.

Primary multifocal myxopapillary ependymoma of the filum terminale.

Background: Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is a rare variant of ependymoma usually occurring in the conus medullaris or the filum terminale. It is usually a single encapsulated lesion. The aim of this study was to describe patients with primary multifocal MPE of the filum terminale.

Primary paraganglioma of the spine: A clinicopathological study of eight cases.

Context: Spinal paragangliomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors of the extra-adrenal paraganglionic system.

Aims: This study describes the clinicopathological features of eight cases of spinal paraganglioma and highlights the significance of important morphological features and immunohistochemistry in the diagnosis of paraganglioma at this unusual site.

Material And Methods: All the cases of primary spinal paragangliomas diagnosed during the last six years (2008-2013) in the Department of Pathology at our hospital were reviewed.

Cauda equina schwannoma presenting with intratumoral hemorrhage and intracranial subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The authors report the case of a spinal intradural schwannoma presenting with intracranial subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Cerebral angiography did not show any intracranial lesion; however, MRI revealed two separate tumors in the lower segment of the spinal cord. The proximal lesion arising from the conus medullaris was well circumscribed and homogeneously enhanced, whereas the tumor in the cauda equina revealed hemorrhagic signals on MRI.

Intraspinal lesions associated with sacrococcygeal dimples.

Unlabelled: OBJECT.: Sacrococcygeal dimples in the gluteal fold, also known as coccygeal pits, are observed in 2%-4% of newborns. Sacrococcygeal dimples are not generally considered to be associated with a significant risk of intraspinal anomalies and therefore are not thought to require further radiographic evaluation.