[The pathologico-anatomic study of the metastatic tumor of the spine (author's transl)].

The radiological and histological studies were performed on the three spinal column obtained at autopsy from cases with metastatic tumors to the spine with complete paralysis treated surgically. These three cases consisted of a maxillary carcinoma with metastasis to the cervical spine, a seminoma with metastasis to the thoracic spine and a metastasized renal cell carcinoma to the thoracic spine. All patients died without recovery from the paralysis, in spite of the immediate tumor resection and spinal fusion were done immediately after the appearance of complete paralysis. The histological examination of cross section of these spinal column showed that tumor cells infiltrated in the vertebral body and spinal canal, and spinal cord was remarkably compressed by the tumor. Therefore, various degrees of degeneration were seen in the spinal cord. In addition, many tumor-cell emboli were seen in veins of vertebral body and spinal canal in two cases, and also tumor cell infiltration to an intradural space and marked deformity of the spinal cord were seen in one case. These above findings would suggest that tumor cells, which metastasized to vertebral body through venous plexus from the primary lesion, infiltrated into the spinal canal, compressed spinal cord and caused paralysis.