[Solitary spinal epidural angiomas-reports of three cases with special reference to spinal epidural hematoma (author's transl)].

Solitary spinal epidural angiomas are rare. Of 114 cases of spinal angiomas reported in a recent monograph of Pia and Djindjian, only twenty-nine were angiomas locating exclusively in the spinal epidural space. We have recently experienced such a spinal epidural angioma in 3 patients. One of them, aged 18, developed transverse spinal syndrome, and a venous angioma was found at operation as the cause of bleeding. Reviewing the available literature, we could find only 7 such cases with an angioma confirmed by histologic study as a source of spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma. All but one were young patients aged 19 or more. In patients with spinal epidural hematomas, particularly those in youth, vascular malformations should be seriously suspected as a cause of bleeding.