Spinal hemangioblastomas are often evaluated with catheter angiography for both workup and treatment planning. We report a unique longitudinal pulse-synchronous bouncing phenomenon observed during ...their angiographic evaluation and consider the association of pulse-synchronous bouncing with syringomyelia, another pathologic feature associated with hemangioblastomas.
Preoperative spinal angiograms and associated magnetic resonance imagings (MRIs) obtained over a 16-year period at a single institution were retrospectively evaluated. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters included lesion and syrinx location and size. Angiograms were evaluated for bouncing phenomena. Student's t-test and Chi square test compared characteristics between groups. Linear regression analyses evaluated maximum amplitude of dynamic motion and any associated syrinx.
Nineteen hemangioblastoma patients had preoperative angiograms available for review. Eight exhibited bouncing behavior. Between the dynamic and nondynamic cohorts, there was no difference in presence or volume of syrinxes. Lesions in the dynamic cohort trended towards a cervical location (75% vs. 36.3%, P = 0.10). No significant correlation was found between bouncing amplitude and syrinx size (R2 = 0.023). Dural contact may be related to this dynamic behavior since other high-flow lesions like AVMs do not demonstrate this phenomenon, and AVMs are pial-based and more likely to contact stationary dura. Here, there were fewer lesions abutting the thecal sac in the dynamic cohort (50% vs. 81.8%, P = 0.14).
Though no significant relationship was established between this bouncing behavior and syrinx formation, noted trends included a greater range of motion for cervical lesions and limited motion in tumors abutting the thecal sac.
Neuroblastoma of the Lumbar Spine Hung, Bethany; Pennington, Zach; Sciubba, Daniel M.
World neurosurgery,
07/2021, Letnik:
151
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Neuroblastoma is a primitive small-round-blue-cell tumor predominately found in pediatric patients. Few cases of neuroblastoma involving the adult spine have been reported. Herein we present the case ...of a healthy 34-year-old man treated for a large neuroblastoma involving the L3-5 vertebral bodies and prevertebral great vessels. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy led to significant cytoreduction, enabling en bloc resection of the initially unresectable tumor. Adjuvant differentiating therapy was employed, and curative radiation therapy was used to address the first instance of locoregional recurrence. The patient remains alive with stable disease more than 2 years after his initial diagnosis.
Retroperitoneal sarcomas may grow extremely large before becoming clinically symptomatic, and curative resection often has high associated morbidity. An 83-year-old man presented with insidious-onset ...abdominal pain and weight loss owing to a 16.3 × 13.1 × 25.8–cm retroperitoneal high-grade myxoid spindle cell sarcoma. The patient was ultimately deemed to be unfit for surgery before rapidly succumbing to his disease. This case illustrates both the indolent growth seen in these lesions and the importance of proper patient selection. Older patients with large, high-grade lesions and multiple associated comorbidities are often poor surgical candidates, as the associated surgical morbidity outweighs the potential survival benefit. While the ultimate treatment plan relies on shared decision making by the patient and the healthcare provider, the decision to pursue surgical intervention should take into consideration the patient's broader clinical condition.
Current evidence suggests that dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans, the conventional method defining osteoporosis, is underutilized and, when used, may underestimate patient risk for ...skeletal fragility. It has recently been suggested that other imaging modalities may better estimate bone quality, such as the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based vertebral bone quality (VBQ) score which also may assess vertebral compression fracture risk in patients with spine metastases.
To evaluate whether VBQ score is predictive of fragility fractures in a population with pre-existing low bone density and at high-risk for fracture.
Retrospective single-center cohort.
Patients followed at a metabolic bone clinic for osteopenia and/or osteoporosis.
Radiographically-documented new-onset fragility fracture.
Patients with a DXA and MRI scans at the time of consultation and ≥2-year follow-up were included. Details were gathered about patient demographics, health history, current medication use, and serological studies of kidney function and bone turnover. For each patient, VBQ score was calculated using T1-weighted lumbar MRI images. Univariable and multivariable analyses were used to identify the independent predictors of a new fragility fracture. To support the construct validity of VBQ, patient VBQ scores were compared to those in a cohort of 45 healthy adults.
Seventy-two (39.1%) study participants suffered fragility fractures, the occurrence of which was associated with higher VBQ score (3.50 vs. 3.01; p<.001), chronic glucocorticoid use (30.6% vs. 15.2%; p=.014), and a history of prior fragility fracture (36.1% vs. 21.4%; p=.030). Mean VBQ score across all patients in the study cohort was significantly higher than the mean VBQ score in the healthy controls (p<.001). In multivariable analysis, new-onset fracture was independently associated with history of prior fracture (OR=6.94; 95% confidence interval 2.48–19.40; p<.001), higher VBQ score (OR=2.40 per point; 1.30–4.44; p=.003), higher body mass index (OR=1.09 per kg/m²; 1.01–1.17; p=.03), and chronic glucocorticoid use (OR=2.89; 1.03–8.17; p=0.043). Notably, DXA bone mineral density (BMD) was not found to be significantly predictive of new-onset fractures in the multivariable analysis (p=.081).
Here we demonstrate the novel, MRI-derived VBQ score is both an independent predictor of fragility fracture in at-risk patients and a superior predictor of fracture risk than DXA-measured BMD. Given the frequency with which MRIs are obtained by patients undergoing spine surgery consultation, we believe the VBQ score could be a valuable tool for estimating bone quality in order to optimize the management of these patients.
Systemic sclerosis affects 14–21 per million persons annually and can present with calcinosis–deposition in the skin and subcutaneous tissues. In rare circumstances, paraspinal depositions are also ...seen, which can cause neural element compression requiring surgical intervention. Here we present the case of a 61-year-old woman with systemic sclerosis on goal-directed therapy who presented with neurogenic pseudoclaudication and imaging suggesting severe joint hypertrophy. The case illustrates that calcinosis in scleroderma can cause facet joint pseudohypertrophy that is difficult to distinguish from true hypertrophy on imaging. Such pseudohypertrophy is often refractory to medical therapy, necessitating surgical intervention. Last, owing to the fluid nature of the calcinotic fluid, decompression is often easier than would be expected based on preoperative imaging alone.
Abstract
Optic pathway gliomas (OPG) are generally low-grade lesions arising from the astrocytes of the visual pathway, most commonly of the optic nerves and chiasm. Uncertainty remains regarding the ...optimal management of this patient population. We sought to leverage population-level data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program database to develop a predictive calculator for overall survival (OS) amongst pediatric patients with OPG. A total of 1,052 patients who had been diagnosed with OPG were included. Multivariate cox proportional hazard model demonstrated patients of “other” race (hazard ratio HR=4.109, 95% confidence interval CI 1.076-15.694, p=0.039) exhibited a decreased overall survival, while patients with a median household income ≥$55,000 (HR=0.172, 95% CI 0.065-0.457, <0.001) and those who underwent subtotal resection (HR=3.549, 95% CI 1.092-13.364, p=0.047) had a higher overall survival rate. An online, interactive survival prediction tool (https://spine.shinyapps.io/optic_glioma/) was created to estimate 5-, 10-, and 15-year overall survival probability as well as median survival months. C-index was 0.722 (95% CI 0.642-0.776) for the training set and 0.745 (95% CI 0.661-0.790) for the validation set. Good concordance between the predicted probability and the actual probability of the dataset was also observed. This calculator may serve as a useful clinical tool during patient counseling. Further investigations aimed at developing calculators of visual acuity preservation and progression-free survival are merited; progress toward this end will benefit from continued multicenter collaborations.
Anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion (ACDF) is the main surgical treatment of cervical radiculopathy. Controversy exists about the need to resect the posterior longitudinal ligament (PLL) to ...directly decompress the nerve roots, or if it is sufficient to indirectly decompress with diskectomy and graft placement. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of PLL resection after ACDF.
A retrospective review was performed of all patients that underwent first-time ACDF for cervical radiculopathy at a single tertiary care institution between 1999 and 2013. Comparative analyses and multivariable logistic regression were performed.
Two hundred patients were included with a mean follow-up of 39 months. Average age was 54 years, 62% were women, and diabetes and current smoking status were noted in 11% and 15%, respectively. PLL resection was performed in 127 patients (64%), and no significant differences in baseline characteristics were observed between the 2 cohorts. One durotomy occurred in the resected PLL cohort, and none were seen in the unresected PLL group. No differences were seen in perioperative complications. At the time of last follow-up, improvement in radiculopathy was observed in 94% of the resected PLL group compared with 81% of the unresected PLL group (P = 0.008). After controlling for confounders, PLL resection had 3.8 times greater odds of leading to postoperative improvement in radiculopathy.
ACDF leads to a high rate of success in improvement of preoperative radiculopathy. Excision of PLL during surgery leads to 3.8 times greater odds of improvement in this symptom, with no significant difference in the complication rate.
