Multi-Level Total En Bloc Spondylectomy for Solitary Lumbar Metastasis of Myxoid Liposarcoma

Abstract

This article reports a case of solitary lumbar metastasis of myxoid liposarcoma treated by multi-level total en bloc spondylectomy. Myxoid liposarcoma has a predisposition to initial metastasis at an extrapulmonary site including bone. However a bone scan and FDG-PET, which are generally used for a whole-body screening of metastasis, are not sensitive to bone metastasis from myxoid liposarcoma. These situations make it difficult to achieve curative resection of a bone metastasis, especially in the spine. The patient was a 54-year-old man who had an intralesional excision of soft tissue tumor in the right thigh. He had an additional expansive excision due to the histological diagnosis of myxoid liposarcoma at the initial surgery. Four years postoperatively, L3 metastasis expanding to the adjacent vertebrae was detected using magnetic resonance imaging. Plain radiographs and computed tomography showed no evidence of the tumor involving the lumbar spine. A bone scan was false-negative although FDG-PET showed mild uptake. There was no other metastasis on the further examination. Multi-level total en bloc spondylectomy was performed using a combined posterior-anterior approach. The lumbar nerves were dissected and preserved. The vertebral bodies of L2, 3 and the upper half of L4, which had been invaded by the tumor, were removed en bloc using an anterolateral extraperitoneal approach. He had no local recurrence or further metastasis until he died of ischemic cardiac disease 14 months postoperatively.