Lumbosacral intradural tumours simulating disc disease.

Twelve patients with symptoms and signs simulating lumbar disc disease were found to have intradural tumours in the lumbosacral area. Of the nine patients with a neurofibroma, two had previously had a laminectomy for an erroneous diagnosis of disc herniation and one had three separate tumours which were excised in two successive operations. One of the three patients with an ependymoma had a coccygectomy before the correct diagnosis was made. Only one patient who had an ependymoma showed radiographic abnormalities suggesting a neoplastic lesion, but eight of the ten cases in which the cerebrospinal fluid was analyzed had a protein content of 50 mg per 100 ml. Myelography provided the correct diagnosis in all cases. Excision of the tumour resulted in full clinical recovery except for one patient with an ependymoma.