Spinal angiolipomas revisited: Two case reports

Abstract

Approximately 60 cases of spinal angiolipomas have been described in the medical literature. Extradural tumours predominate. Lesions with a bony component, the infiltrating subgroup, were reported in 10 patients. Intradural angiolipomas were found three times. Several excellent review articles are available, but a systematic comparison of the characteristics of the two major varieties, infiltrating and non-infiltrating spinal extradural angiolipomas, has not so far been made. The authors operated on two patients with spinal angiolipomas and found one of them the infiltrating and the other the non-infiltrating type. Then, they proceeded to a review of all publish cases of infiltrating angiolipomas. With a knowledge of recently reported data on the subject the authors compared essential clinical features of both varieties of tumours. They share identical clinical characteristics. Differences found in age, sex or location were not statistically significant. Mode of onset and signs and symptoms present on admission were essentially similar. As could be anticipated, removal was more often complete in non-infiltrating tumours, but outcome was good or fair in more than 85% of cases in both groups. Involvement of bone by spinal angiolipomas does not imply a worsening in the prognosis.

Lumbar spinal angiolipomas: report of two cases and review of the literature

“…Infiltration of the vertebral body is often associated with anterior localization. 5 In our cases of lumbar angiolipomas, the tumors were in the ventral epidural space but did not show any signs of bone infiltration. The only bone alteration observed in our cases was an erosion that contained the angiolipomas.…”

“…A review of the international literature since 1892 to 2002 revealed 83 cases of spinal extradural angiolipomas including our two cases. [4][5][6][7][8][9] Most spinal angiolipomas are found at thoracic level and arise in the posterior extradural space. [4][5][6][7][8][9] Pure lumbar localization is extremely rare.…”

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9] Most spinal angiolipomas are found at thoracic level and arise in the posterior extradural space. [4][5][6][7][8][9] Pure lumbar localization is extremely rare. Only six cases [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] of lumbar angiolipomas are reported in the literature accessible to us (Table 1).…”

“…Only six cases [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] of lumbar angiolipomas are reported in the literature accessible to us (Table 1). Several excellent review articles [4][5][6][7][8][9] are already available. The purpose of this report is to report two exceptionally rare cases of lumbar angiolipomas localized in the ventral aspect of the epidural space and to review the pertinent literature.…”

Lumbosacral angiolipoma: case report

“…There were rare described cases of sudden installation of the symptoms or abrupt neurological deterioration 17 . Increasing of the body weight and pregnancy appear to exacerbate the symptoms due to changes in the tumor mass and volume 1,4,16 . The concomitant presence of spinal tumors and discal hernia is probably rare.…”