Surgical treatment of intraspinal tumors in Southern Taiwan: The 30-year experience of a single institution

Abstract

Our institute presented two reports of intraspinal tumors, one in 1997 and the other in 2007, which assessed 120 and 117 cases of diagnosed and surgically treated intraspinal tumors at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Southern Taiwan during 1988–1995 and 1999–2004, respectively. Here, we analyze data from 247 patients with medical records indicating surgery for and pathological reports of intraspinal tumors at the same institute during 2004–2014. Correlational findings from this study were compared with those from the previous two reports. There were 123 male and 124 female patients aged 7–93 (mean age: 55.4) years. The most common pathologic findings were metastasis (50.6%, 125/247), followed by nerve sheath tumors (30.8%, 76/247), meningiomas (6.0%, 15/247), and neuroepithelial tumors (5.2%, 13/247). A slight male predominance in metastasis and a slight female predominate in meningiomas were noted. The peak ages at diagnosis were 51–60 years. Motor weakness was the most common clinical presentation (46.1%). The thoracic spine segment was the most common location (51.4%, 127/247), followed by the lumbosacral (25.5%, 63/247) and cervical (23.1%, 57/247) spine segments. Among the metastatic tumors, the lung was the most common primary site of origin, followed by the liver (hepatocellular carcinoma), lymphoma, prostate, GI (gastrointestinal) tract, breast, and nasopharynx (nasopharyngeal cancer).