Solitary Dorsal Intramedullary Schwanomma ­ A Rare Lesion

Intramedullary schwanommas are rare, and most cases are reported in cervical region. Less than 20 dorsal intramedullary schwanommas have been reported till date in literature. This is due to their cell of origin, the Schwann cell, which is not normally found within the parenchyma of the brain and spinal cord; therefore it is not surprising that these lesions are rare. We report a rare solitary dorsal intramedullary schwanomma in a young adult patient who presented with paraplegia.

Trans-Septal Trans-Sphenoidal Surgery For Pituitary Adenomas:A Retrospective Study.

In this retrospective study 100 patients of pituitary adenoma who underwent Trans-septal Trans-sphenoidal surgery over 10 years period were evaluated. The mean presenting complaints of these patients were headache and decreased vision. Majority of tumors in our study were non functioning adenomas (39%) followed by prolactinomas (38%), growth hormone producing tumors constituted 20%, where as cortisol secreting adenomas were 3%. There was no operative mortality in our series. Post-op CSF rhinnorrhoea was noted in 3 patients - out of these one patient required surgical repair of fistula in immediate postoprated period while other two patients were managed with lumbar drain. Total excision of tumor was attained in 38% of patients as these were evaluated by post-oprated CT scan and MRI with contrast. 30% of patients were given radiotherapy immediately after the surgery. These were patients in whom residual tumor was more than 1 cm in size and the hormone levels did not return to normal. The patients were followed up from 9 months to 10 years with a mean follow up of 4 years. There were total of 18 recurrences on follow up study.