Treatment of intramedullary tumors: analysis of surgical morbidity and long-term results

Abstract

<jats:sec> <jats:title>Object</jats:title> <jats:p>Surgery of intramedullary tumors is established as the treatment of choice for these challenging lesions. This study presents a detailed analysis of risk factors for surgical morbidity and data on long-term results for intramedullary tumors.</jats:p></jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>Among 1317 patients with tumors of the spinal canal treated between 1980 and 2012, 278 patients with intramedullary tumors are presented. A total of 225 of these patients underwent 246 operations for treatment of 250 tumors. The mean patient age was 41 ± 17 years (range 3 weeks to 83 years). Patients underwent follow-up through outpatient visits and questionnaires with a mean follow-up of 41 ± 53 months. Tumors were subdivided into 3 groups: displacing tumors (Type A, n = 162), infiltrating tumors (Type B, n = 80), and nonproliferating tumors (Type C, n = 8). A gross-total resection (GTR) was attempted for every tumor except for Type C lipomas. Participating surgeons were divided into 3 groups according to the number of operations they performed. Short-term results were determined for individual symptoms and the modified McCormick Scale, whereas tumor recurrence rates were calculated with Kaplan-Meier statistics.</jats:p></jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Overall, 83.3% of Type A tumors underwent GTR compared with 22.5% of Type B and none in Type C. Gross-total resection rates increased throughout the study period and correlated significantly with surgical experience. A worsened neurological state after surgery was seen in 61% of patients. This deterioration was transient in 41.5% and was a common observation after GTR. Permanent morbidity (19.5%) was lowest after GTR and correlated significantly with surgical experience and the preoperative neurological state. Further analysis showed that patients with tumors of thoracic levels, tumor hemorrhages, and malignant and recurrent tumors were at a higher risk for permanent morbidity. In the long term, tumor recurrence rates for ependymomas and benign astrocytomas correlated significantly with the amount of resection. Long-term morbidity affected 3.7% with a postoperative myelopathy related to cord tethering at the level of surgery and 21.9% in form of neuropathic pain syndromes. The rate of postsurgical cord tethering could be lowered significantly by using pia sutures after tumor resection. Neuropathic pain syndromes were more common after surgery for tumors with associated syringomyelia or those located in the cervical cord.</jats:p></jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Intramedullary tumors should be surgically treated as soon as neurological symptoms appear. Gross-total resection is possible for the majority of benign pathologies. Cervical tumors are associated with higher GTR and lower permanent morbidity rates compared with thoracic tumors. Surgery on intramedullary tumors should be performed by neurosurgeons who deal with these lesions on a regular basis as considerable experience is required to achieve high GTR rates and to limit rates of permanent morbidity.</jats:p></jats:sec>

Spinal ependymomas. Part 1: Intramedullary ependymomas

“…11 In this series, 86.3% of ependymomas underwent GTR, 3,[5][6][7]10,16,19,20,[28][29][30]33 with a steady increase of this rate throughout the overall study period. The major reasons for the steadily increasing GTR rates appear to be the improvements in preoperative MRI as well as the intraoperative ultrasound visualization, the introduction of small ultrasonic aspirators, and increasing experience of neurosurgeons.…”

“…Since 1995, all lamina are reimplanted. The microsurgical technique employed was based on the work of Malis 20 and Stein 29 and has been published in detail previously 11,14 ( Fig. 1).…”

“…2,3,5,6,16,18,19,27,32 transient morbidity Further analysis showed a trend for higher rates of postoperative transient morbidity with increasing age. 7,11,31 Elderly patients demonstrated more difficulties to overcome deficits of joint position sense in particular. Transient postoperative neurological deteriorations were more common after GTRs than partial resections and after operations by experienced surgeons of Group C, who were more likely to remove a tumor completely.…”

“…11 This paper presents a detailed analysis of patients with intramedullary ependymomas treated between 1982 and 2014 to identify factors responsible for their surgical morbidity and possible ways to improve surgical outcomes.…”

Spinal cord ependymoma presenting as letm: A case report

“…One would expect that surgical morbidity would be less in ependymomas compared with other intramedullary tumours, since ependymomas are usually well demarcated. However, ependymomas were associated with the highest surgical morbidity rate compared with all other intramedullary tumors in a recent analysis [10]. This is the main reason that our patient was excluded from any surgical intervention.…”