VERTEBRAL HEMANGIOMA WITH COMPRESSION OF THE SPINAL CORD.

Abstract

Case repor ts of ve r t eb ra l hemangiomas occurr ing in associat ion wi th compression of the spinal cord have appeared inf requent ly in the medical l i t e ra ture2 I n his 1953 review Cocchi 4 ci ted no more t h a n 140 cases of hemang ioma of bone, and in 1955 Bell 2 men t ioned only 64 cases associated wi th compression of the spinal cord. Robbins and F o u n t a i n 9 in 1958 collected only 10 examples of such compression in the cervical area. T h e roentgenographic appearance of ver tebra l hemang ioma is character is t ic . I t was described first in 19~6 b y P e r m a n 8 whose repor t was based on the observa t ion of his own case in which laminec tomy had been performed successfully. I n 1929 Bai ley and Bucy 1 emphas ized t ha t , a l though cavernous h e m a n g i o m a of the ve r t eb ra p resen ted a character is t ic roentgenological picture, rarely a t t h a t t ime was the diagnosis made e i ther before opera t ion or before necropsy. Roen tgen therapy, 7 in t roduced in 1930, was in i t ia ted largely as the resul t of the dismal early surgical experiences. While surgical mor ta l i ty now is negligible for such compression, the procedure remains difficult and p repa ra t ions for blood rep lacement are impor t an t . Roen tgen t he r a py t hen remains the procedure of choice unless otherwise con t ra ind ica ted by failure of response or b y too rapid progression of the symptoms of compression. Because of the u n c o m m o n occurrence of symptoms of compression, as well as the impor tance of the early recognit ion and t r e a t m e n t of ve r t eb ra l hemangiomas , i t seemed justif iable to describe the case of a 70-year-old woman who recovered as the resul t of r ad ia t ion t he r a py alone, and remained well unt i l her d e a t h a t the age of 80 years.