Surgical Treatment of Ependymomas in the Cervical and Upper Thoracic Spinal Cord

Czech version

Authors: P. Buchvald; P. Suchomel; M. Kaiser
Authors‘ workplace: Neurochirurgické oddělení, Neurocentrum, Krajská nemocnice Liberec
Published in: Cesk Slov Neurol N 2007; 70/103(2): 196-200
Category: Short Communication

Overview

Intramedullary ependymomas are the most common spinal cord tumors in the cervical and thoracic regions in adult patients. These tumors are benign, slowly growing lesions which are optimally treated with the total surgical resection without adjuvant therapy. The authors have analysed retrospectively a group of eight patients treated within 2001-2004. In two of them tumors also extended into the medulla oblongata. Six cases underwent total and two subtotal surgical removals without adjuvant therapy. The functional outcome was evaluated according to Nurick scale. Four patients without severe neurological deficit before surgery (Nurick 1-2) were improved (3) or remained unchanged (1) postoperatively. In four patients with initial serious functional deficit (Nurick 4-5) poor neurological status also persisted after a surgery. No recurrence has been observed in seven treated patients so far (one patient died of different diagnosis eight months after a surgery). In correspondence with literature our results have denoted that good initial functional status and the radical removal are the propitious prognostic factors influencing long-lasting good postoperative outcome without the tumor recurrence.

Key words:
ependymoma, spinal cord, surgery, laminoplasty

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