Clinical features and treatments of spinal subependymoma:eight cases report

LI Jie; CAO Hengcong; LIU Ying; CAO Qinhui; BU Yi; LI Guohua; GU Shoushan

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1671-6450.2016.08.021

Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical features and treatments of spinal subependymoma ( SSE) .Methods From January 2000 to March 2015, 8 cases of spinal subependymomain Second Hospital of Tangshan were retrospectively studied.Total surgical removal was achieved in four patients and subtotal one was done in the other four patients.No patient had postoperative radiotherapy.Tumor recurrence was seen in one patient who had subtotal resection and the patient received subtotal removal again.Clinical presentations, imageological exams, therapeutic outcomes and follow up of eight patientswere studied to get clinical features and best therapy.Results The onsets of SSE were numbness and weakness of limbs.MRI find-ings showed that most of the masses were eccentrically located within the spinal cord.On T1 weighted image, the masses were hypo-intense ( n =5) or isointense ( n =3) to the spinal cord.On T2 weighted image, all the masses were homogeneously hyper-intense.In Gadolinium contrast, no obvious enhancement was seen in all cases.After operation, four total removal pa-tients were asymptomatic and four subtotal removal patients had limb numbness relieved.The patient who had tumor recurrence received subtotal removal again and no more recurrence appeared.There was no relevant factor with tumor recurrence.No pa-tient deceased in this series.Conclusion The clinical feature of SSE is largely nonspecific.MRI scan conduces to preopera-tive diagnosis.Surgery is the routine treatment and total removal seems to have better outcomes than subtotal removal.In the recurrence patient, operation is still the therapeutic choice.Postoperative radiotherapy might not be necessary for incompletely resected tumor.