Open AccessThoracic intramedullary lipoma in a 3-year-old child: Spontaneous decrease in the size following incomplete resection
Author(s) -
Cem Yılmaz,
Fatih Aydemir
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
asian journal of neurosurgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2248-9614
DOI - 10.4103/1793-5482.180965
Subject(s) - medicine , intramedullary rod , lipoma , debulking , magnetic resonance imaging , decompression , surgery , kyphosis , tumor debulking , radiology , radiography , chemotherapy , ovarian cancer , cancer
Nondysraphic intramedullary spinal cord lipomas are even rarer. We present a thoracic intramedullary lipoma which spontaneously decreased in size following surgical debulking. A 3-year-old girl was admitted to our department with complaints of back pain since 1 year and progressive difficulty in walking since 6 months. Her magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed T8-9 intramedullary mass showing increased signal intensity in both T1- and T2-weighted images. The patient was operated with a T8-9 laminoplasty and debulking, and internal decompression of the tumor was made. Histologically, the tumor was uniformly composed of mature adipose tissue revealing a lipoma. First-month control MRI revealed the rest mass almost the half volume of the preoperative mass. The 2 nd year MRI revealed the size of the lipoma was spontaneously decreased to almost half of postoperative size and 3 rd year was the same as the 2 nd year with a mild kyphosis. Decompression and debulking with or without duraplasty is the most appropriate treatment for symptomatic patients. Dietary measures with control of fat intake and long-term follow-up are also suggested.