Clinical Profile and Surgical Management of Intramedullary Spinal Cord Tumors

Background and Aim: Intramedullary spinal cord tumors (IMSCTs) are rare tumors of the spine. The study aims to analyze the clinical profile and surgical management of IMSCTs. Methods and Materials/Patients: This is a retrospective study to review the IMSCTs operated between January 2007 to December 2021. Myxopapillary ependymomas were excluded from the study. Results: There were twenty-seven operated cases of IMSCTs. The Mean±SD age was 39±22 years. Fifteen (55.5%) were males and 12(44.5%) were female patients. There were 6(22%) cervical, 7(26%) cervicodorsal, 9 (33%) dorsal, and 5(19%) dorsolumbar IMSCTs. The Mean±SD duration of symptoms was 10±14 months. Ten (37%) patients had spinal cord syrinx. Motor weakness and pain were the most common symptoms. Intraoperative gross total resection (GTR) was achieved in 12(44.4%) patients, near-total resection in 4(14.8%) patients, subtotal resection in 2(7.4%) patients, decompression in 7(26%) patients, and biopsy in 2(7.4%) patients. Eighteen (66.6%) patients had neurological status same as preoperative status. Four (14.8%) patients had improvement and 5(18.5%) patients had deterioration in neurological status. Ependymoma was the most common histological type of IMSCT (40.5%). Other lesions are glioma, hemangioblastoma, lipoma, schwannoma, lymphoma, capillary hemangioma, arachnoid cyst, and epidermoid cyst with spinal dysraphism. Ependymomas had well-defined margins compared to other gliomas. Duration of stay in the hospital was 9±3.5 days. Conclusion: Dorsal spine is the most common location of IMSCTs and ependymoma is the most common histological type. It is the surgeon’s intraoperative decision regarding the extent of resection of the tumor based on the spinal cord infiltration and tumor type. GTR is possible in the majority of ependymomas and some other histological tumors like schwannoma, arachnoid cyst, and epidermoid cyst.