Aneurysmal bone cysts of the spine.

Aneurysmal bone cysts of the spine are uncommon. In the English language literature, there have been less than one hundred reported cases. We present five examples, all of which arose in a vertebral body. One case is the first reported arising from the coccyx; one presented at the sixth thoracic vertebral body with complete paraplegia and two with extremely large abdominal masses and catastrophic bleeding during attempted open biopsy. All were resected by a one-stage anterior or combined anterior-posterior approach. Two cases were treated with preoperative irradiation because of profuse, life-threatening bleeding during biopsy, and 4 weeks later complete anterior excision was carried out without difficulty.