0:00

So, the top four neoplasms that affect the spinal

0:03

cord would be astrocytoma, number one,

0:07

followed by ependymoma in children,

0:11

ependymoma followed by astrocytoma in adults,

0:14

followed by hemangioblastomas and metastases.

0:18

Now, we're going to get into the more unusual

0:20

neoplasms affecting the spinal cord.

0:23

Here is a patient who is 20 years old and had

0:26

been treated for scoliosis and you'll notice that

0:30

he's had rods placed to correct that thoracic scoliosis.

0:35

He was only evaluated with plane films for

0:38

presumed benign scoliosis.

0:41

However, when we look at the cervical spine

0:44

region on the MRI scan,

0:46

we see that there is a mass in

0:48

the cervical spinal cord.

0:51

As we look at it on the sagittal scan,

0:53

you see that indeed this is intramedullary

0:56

intradural lesion with narrowing of the CSF space,

1:00

as one would expect from an intradural intramedullary

1:03

lesion, and then returning to more normal signal

1:07

intensity and width of the CSF.

1:10

However, this is going in and out of plane

1:14

because of the patient's cervical spinal cord...

1:17

cervical spinal canal scoliosis.

1:21

On the post-gadolinium-enhanced scan,

1:23

we see irregular contrast enhancement of this mass,

1:26

which is relatively well-defined.

1:29

So this is one of the more unusual of

1:32

the neoplasms of the spinal cord.

1:34

And this is a cord ganglioglioma.

1:37

This is a low grade neoplasm, more typically

1:40

found at the conus medullaris,

1:43

that is at the bottom of the spinal cord, but in this case,

1:46

a cervical spine one which was found after the

1:50

patient had been previously treated for

1:53

their "benign scoliosis."

1:55

So this is the fifth of the neoplasms I wanted

1:59

to describe in the spinal cord.

2:01

And now we'll go on to the final neoplasm.