Vol. 7 Issue 3 Part A

Introduction: Primary spinal cord tumors are one of the rarest categories of tumors, representing about 4-16% of all tumors arising from the CNS. Spinal lesions relate to epidural space’s spinal tissues, which involve spinal meninges, spinal nerve roots and spinal cord. It commonly affects the thoracic region. Spinal cord tumors can be classified according to their anatomical locations as Extradural and intradural. Intradural tumors can be further classified as extramedullary and intramedullary. Clinical history, radiological features and pathological examination are required to diagnose spinal tumors.

Aims & objectives: To study incidence, morphological features of various Spinal tumors at tertiary care hospital. To study age, sex and location wise distribution.

Methodology: Received resected specimens and biopsies of spinal cord tumors in histology section of our department. All the specimens were fixed in 10% buffered formalin and processed by routine paraffin method. Haematoxylin & Eosin stained sections were studied microscopically.

Results: This study was undertaken from May 2023 to May 2024 and the total cases encountered were 71 with males constituting 25(35%) and females constituting 46(65%) cases. The distribution of spinal tumors based on anatomical locations, 23(32%) intramedullary, 38(54%) intradural extramedullary, 10(14%) cases extradural. The tumors include Meningiomas 30(42%), Ependymomas 19(26%), Neurofibroma 10(14%), schwannomas 7(10%), Astrocytomas 1(2%) case and others (6%) which includes 1 Ganglioglioma, 2 Ewing’s sarcomas and 1 case of hemangioblastoma.

Conclusion: The most common primary spinal tumor was meningioma followed by ependymoma, neurofibroma, schwannoma, astrocytoma and others. Most common symptom was motor weakness followed by pain, bladder dysfunction and sensory loss. All differential diagnosis of spinal tumors are kept in mind as correct diagnosis helps in the treatment and prognosis.