Microsurgical procedure combined with thoracoscopic resection for thoracic spinal canal dumbbell-shaped tumors

Abstract

Background Spinal canal dumbbell-shaped tumor growing to spinal canal and paravertebral, may compress the spinal cord and invade the spinal canal, intervertebral foramen and spinal structures, and cause clinical symptoms. The dumbbell-shaped tumor in the thoracic vertebrae can penetrate thorax to cause pleural irritation symptoms, such as chest pain, short breath, cough and so on. As the microsurgical technique and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery can remarkably reduce the harm, retrospective analysis was performed in order to explore the combined treatment of microsurgical proceduse and thoracoscopic resection for spinal canal dumbbell-shaped tumor and to summarize the surgical experience. Methods and Results There were 4 cases with thoracic spinal canal dumbbell-shaped tumors, among them 3 were typeⅡ and one was typeⅢ. In the surgery, 3 patients with typeⅡ underwent posterior mediastinal tumor resection under thoracoscope, and then underwent hemilaminectomy through posterior median approach. Under microscope, the tumors were entirely excised with excellent exporsure. The patient with type Ⅲ was firstly subjected to spinal canal tumor excision, and then entirely excisied intrathoracic tumor under thoracoscope. In 2 cases, the uncommon feelings became worse after surgery, but became better after half a year. In one case, the weakness of two legs, chest pain and cough were remarkably relieved, and in one case dry cough obliterated. During the follow-up period, there was no serious complication or death, and MRI revealed that the tumors were entirely excised without relapse. Conclusion The posterior median hemilaminectomy combined with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery to treat spinal canal dumbbell-shaped tumors has following advantages: small trauma, few complication, good effectiveness and rapid recovery, which can be used as preferred treatment for spinal canal dumbbell-shaped tumor. doi：10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2013.12.004