Cervical spine giant cell bone tumor: a case report

İdris Sertbaş,Mete Karatay,Uguray Payam Hacisalihoğlu

doi:10.1186/s12957-019-1625-5

İdris Sertbaş, Mete Karatay + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12957-019-1625-5

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Abstract

BackgroundGiant cell tumors (GCTs) of the bone are locally aggressive primary bone tumors with a benign character. Spinal involvement is rare and they are quite rare in the cervical spine.Case presentationA 31-year-old male patient presented with neck pain. Cervical CT revealed a lytic lesion extending posteriorly and causing the collapse of the C4 vertebra corpus. The patient underwent excision of the tumor extending from the anterior to the posterior with a single-stage anterior intervention followed by the placement of an anterior cage and plate-screw system for fusion. The pathology was reported as GCT.ConclusionsThe posteriorly located lesion was widely curetted through an anterior approach in a single session.

Highlights

Giant cell tumors (GCTs) of the bone are locally aggressive primary bone tumors with a benign character
Giant cell tumors (GCTs) of the bone are locally aggressive primary tumors with a benign character involving the metaphysis of long bones
The preferred treatment for GCTs is wide en bloc resection but spinal GCTs may not be able to be resected en bloc due to the risk of vascular or neural injury [6, 7]

Summary

Background

Giant cell tumors (GCTs) of the bone are locally aggressive primary tumors with a benign character involving the metaphysis of long bones. Primary GCTs in cervical spine constitute 2–3% of all spinal tumors [3, 4] It is more common in females than males and in the third and fourth decades. Case report A 31-year-old male patient presented to our clinic with symptoms of neck pain, back pain (pain in the lower cervical and upper thoracic region), and numbness in both arms for the last 3 months. His physical examination revealed hypoesthesia at the C4 and C5 dermatomes in both arms with no loss of strength. No recurrence was seen during 3 years of follow-up (Fig. 6)

Discussion

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