Coexistence of spinal intramedullary teratoma and diastematomyelia in an adult

Abstract

Study design: A case report of intramedullary spinal cord teratoma with remote diastematomyelia in a female adult.Objective: To present a rare case of a dysembryogenic spinal tumor with concurrent split cord malformation and to define the importance of early surgical removal of the tumor. Setting: A department of neurosurgery in Greece. Methods: A 44-year old woman, presented with progressive lower limb muscle weakness, gait disturbances and dysesthesias in the trunk and lower extremity. She underwent plain radiographs, CT and MRI scan, which revealed an exophytic intramedullary spinal cord tumor at the level of T8-T10 and distant diastematomyelia in the upper lumbar spine (L2-L3). She underwent surgical intervention. The tumor was subtotally removed. No attempt was made to treat diastematomyelia. Results: Postoperatively, the patient's neurological status started to improve gradually. After 1 year she exhibited better strength in the lower limb muscles and improved sensation. The histological examination demonstrated mature spinal teratoma consisting of ectodermal, mesodermal and endodermal elements. Conclusions: In adult patients with intramedullary masses of possible dysembryogenic origin, the whole spine must be examined for additional dysraphic lesions. The choice and the timing of a surgical intervention are strongly dependent on the clinical picture.

Coexistence of spinal teratoma of the conus medullaris and arteriovenous malformation in an adult: a case report

“…Teratomas are uncommon intraspinal lesions and their pathogenesis remains unclear (18). A dysembryonic or prenatal origin has recently been proposed, due to the dysfunction of several factors involved in gene functions and cellular inductive interactions (8).…”

Teratoma in Split Cord Malformation: An Unusual Association: A Report of Two Cases with a Review of the Literature

“…Among the 39 patients with SCM reported by Pang et al [6], 33 had associated tethering lesions, but none of them had a teratoma. Only 24 cases [5,7,8,9,10,11,12] of such an association had been described in the literature prior to the article by Sharma et al [13]. Only 5 of these cases were associated with an intramedullary teratoma.…”

Intramedullary Teratomas: Two Case Reports and a Review of the Literature

“…From a clinical viewpoint, the characteristics of teratomas are no different from those of other slow-growth intramedullary tumours; their clinical history is usually lengthy and ingravescence is gradual; the topographical distribution of algesic, motor and sensory disorders is related to the site. Dys-raphic malformations such as spina bifida, diastematomyelia, and tethered cord are associated with teratomas in about 15 % of the cases [1,7,12,21,33,40,44,46,51].…”