Primary spinal epidural lymphomas.

An epidural location for lymphoma is observed in 0.1-6.5% of all the lymphomas. Primary spinal epidural lymphoma (PSEL) is a subset of lymphomas, where there are no other recognizable sites of lymphomas at the time of diagnosis. The incidence of this subset of lymphomas is much less. It, however, is increasingly diagnosed, due to the increased use of more sensitive imaging modalities. For the electronic search, Pubmed was used to identify journals that enlisted and enumerated PSEL from 1961 to January 2011. The following combination of terms: "primary," "spinal," "epidural," and "lymphoma" were used. The most significant articles and their bibliographies were analyzed by the authors. The symptoms, pathogenesis, diagnostic workup, histopathology, treatment, and outcome have been analyzed in a systematic manner.