INTRADURAL SPINAL LIPOMA

Abstract

Lipoma of the spinal cord unassociated with spina bifida, extradural or intradural, is rare. In a review of the literature up to 1926, reports of only nine extradural and nine intradural lipomas have been found. Their rarity is further indicated by the fact that of 35,000 necropsies reviewed by Schlesinger, 1 6,540 showed some form of tumor, but no intradural spinal lipoma was found. In the statistics of the New York Neurological Institute, no instance of either extradural or intradural lipoma unassociated with spina bifida was found at either necropsy or operation. Schlesinger's review of the literature brought forth reports of three intradural and twelve extradural lipomas. Spiller, in 1899, reported a case of a minute intradural lipoma in the filum terminale and verified the cases reviewed by Schlesinger without finding a single additional one. He was unable to find one reference (Holmes, 1885) cited by Schlesinger, nor have I