Intradural extramedullary capillary hemangioma in the upper thoracic spine: a review of the literature.

Yoichiro Takata,Toshinori Sakai,Kosaku Higashino,Yuichiro Goda,Fumitake Tezuka,Koichi Sairyo

doi:10.1155/2014/604131

Abstract

Capillary hemangiomas are benign tumors found in the skin and soft tissues in younger people. They occur in the central nervous system only rarely, and intradural occurrence is extremely rare. We report here a 60-year-old man presenting with thoracic girdle pain and progressive gait disturbance. Magnetic resonance images of the thoracic spine showed a 12 × 8 × 20 mm, well-defined intradural mass at the T2 level, compressing the spinal cord laterally. Relative to the spinal cord, the mass was hypo- to isointense on T1-weighted images and relatively hyperintense on T2-weighted images, with strong enhancement on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. The patient underwent T1-2 hemilaminectomy with resection of the intradural extramedullary tumor, which showed characteristics of a capillary hemangioma on histologic examination. The patient's symptoms improved following the surgery and no clinical or radiological evidence of recurrence was noted at the 2-year follow-up. We present this case with a review of the literature, highlighting features for differential diagnosis.

Highlights

Capillary hemangiomas are benign vascular malformations, most often found in the skin or soft tissue throughout the body in younger patients
To the best of our knowledge, 35 cases of pure intradural extramedullary capillary hemangioma have been reported to date [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]
Spinal cord tumors account for about 15% of all central nervous system neoplasms

Summary

Introduction

Capillary hemangiomas are benign vascular malformations, most often found in the skin or soft tissue throughout the body in younger patients. They are histologically characterized by nodules of capillary-sized vessels lined by flattened endothelium [1]. To the best of our knowledge, 35 cases of pure intradural extramedullary capillary hemangioma have been reported to date [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. A case of intradural extramedullary capillary hemangioma in the upper thoracic spine is described and the literature is reviewed

Case Presentation

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion