Kaya R Alper, Türkmenoğlu Osman, Dalkiliç Türker, Aydin Yunus
Department of Neurosurgery, Sişli Etfal State Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Neurosurgery. 2003 Nov;53(5):1230-3; discussion 1233-4. doi: 10.1227/01.neu.0000089484.70993.d1.
A spinal cord tumor occurring in association with Klippel-Feil syndrome is quite rare. The removal of an anteriorly located spinal cord tumor at the level of block vertebrae creates a surgical challenge.
A case of an intradural extramedullary dermoid cyst located anterior to the spinal cord and a syringomyelic cavity at the level of block vertebrae in a 43-year-old woman with Klippel-Feil syndrome is presented. She experienced pain and numbness in both shoulders and in her neck, and she had a slight weakness in both arms before the operation. Her weakness and the clinical symptoms completely disappeared after the operation, and the resolution of the syringomyelic cavity was observed at control magnetic resonance imaging.
An anterior approach creating a fenestra corpectomy to the block vertebrae was performed, and the tumor was removed totally. No fusion or fixation was performed.
To our knowledge, this is the first report of an anteriorly located intradural extramedullary cervical spine tumor in association with Klippel-Feil syndrome treated with this surgical technique. A three-dimensional computed tomographic control scan obtained 1 year after the operation did not show any instability.
