Extramedullary intradural cervical tumor: Case presentation

Abstract

Spinal cord tumors are rare and can be found in 15% of tumors of the central nervous system; amongst them, intradural extramedullary tumors occur in 40% and have their origin in the leptomeninges or nerve roots, and mainly they are meningiomas and schwannomas. According to the topographical location and origin they can produce, at the beginning, a radicular syndrome (extradural tumors) and later, when evolving, they originate spinal cord compression with disorders of motor, sensitive and, finally, vegetative functions below the affected region. The case presentation is a 21 year-old female patient, from Loja, who since one year ago and by no apparent cause, has intense neck pain, which evolves into a myelopathy refractory to painkillers; concomitantly, she has headache, muscle hypotonia in upper and lower extremities, with establishment of syndrome in U that progresses to quadriparesis, urinary retention and progressive weight loss. She is admitted to the service of Neurosurgery and a nuclear magnetic resonance of cervical spine is done to her, where an oval shaped nodular lesion is found at the level of spinal canal between C1 and C2 on the left side, causing significant mass effect with spinal cord compression. Surgical planning by means of laminectomy of posterior arch of C1 and C2 and removal of tumor is done. By a histopathological study we concluded that it might be a characteristic psamomatous meningioma.