Solitary vertebral amyloidoma of T5 causing spinal cord compression with recurrence after surgery. A case report and review of the literature

ABSTRACT

We report the case of a fifty-two years old patient who presented symptoms of spinal cord compression with incomplete paraplegia in relation to a solitary vertebral tumor of T5. The patient required an urgent surgery for decompression and fixation; the resection of the tumor was intralesional and was complemented by radiotherapy later on. Results of the histological examination confirmed the tumoral nature of the lesion and were compatible with the diagnosis of solitary amyloidoma of T5. The patient recovered progressively. The disease recurred few months later with extension to the lower level T6. The patient underwent a second surgery as complete as possible because the global prognosis of this kind of tumor is essentially related to local recurrence. So a double level vertebrectomy by posterior approach only was performed. At 2 years follow-up after the second surgery, the patient did not show any local recurrence and his neurological status was stable. The aim of this paper is to describe a rare case of thoracic solitary amyloidoma. Diagnosis of such a tumor is not easy due to its aspecific clinical and radiological presentation where more frequent lesions should be ruled out first