Spinal Intramedullary Cysticercosis: A Case Report and Literature Review

Abstract

Neurocysticercosis, involvement of the central nervous system by taenia solium, is one of the most common parasitic diseases of the CNS. However, spinal involvement by neurocysticercosis is uncommon. Here, we reported a 40-year-old woman with intramedullary cysticercosis in the thoracic spinal cord. MRI revealed two well-defined round intramedullary lesions at T4 and T5 vertebral levels, which were homogeneously hypointense on T1WI and hyperintense on T2WI with peripheral edema. Since the patient had progressive neurological deficits, surgery was performed to decompress the spinal cord. Histopathology examination of the removed lesion proved it was intramedullary cysticercosis. In this report, we also discussed the principles of diagnosis and treatment of intramedullary cysticercosis in combination of literature review.

Spinal Intramedullary Cysticercosis: A Rare Diagnostic Dilemma

“…Spinal intramedullary cysticercosis is very rare compared to intracerebral cysticercosis (1)(2)(3). These are sometimes difficult to differentiate from more common primary and metastatic neoplastic lesions or granulomatous lesions, such as tuberculosis and sarcoidosis.…”

Solitary intramedullary cervical cysticercosis without neurological deficit: A rare case report

“…[678] Serum level of antigen tends to decrease drastically after the treatment, hence it is a valuable tool to assess the effectiveness of treatment and recurrence.…”

Spinal cysticercosis: A report of two cases with review of literature

“…[11] However, these are not specific and the differentials include: Arachnoid cyst, ependymal cyst, neurenteric cyst, sarcoidosis, ependymoma, and infections including abscess. [12] In cases of spinal cysticercosis, the entire neuraxis should be evaluated to detect any additional lesion. In contrast to the existing literature, both our cases had isolated spinal cysticercosis.…”