A Case of Intramedullary Spinal Neurilemmoma

ABSTRACT

A rare case of intramedullary neurilemmoma of the spinal cord has been reported. A 23-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital, on 4th July, 1982, because of weakness of legs and difficulty of urination. Neurological examination revealed motor weakness of the both lower extremities with muscle atrophy. Sensory examination showed hypesthesia below the level of L3 dermatome of the right side and of L4 dermatome of the left. All deep tendon reflexes of the lower extremities were abolishes and Lasehue's sign was not appeared. Manometric Queckenstedt's test showed a complete block, with CSF protein of 460 mg/dl. Pantopaque myelogram demonstrated a complete block at the midportion of L1 spine. Total removal of the intramedullary tumor which was located in the dorsal column of the thoracolumbar segment was performed. The tumor was 4.0x1.5x1.0 cm in size and it proved to be an Antoni-A type neurilemmoma histologically. Only 20 similar cases have been published so far and summarized on Table 1, including our case. The relevant literature was reviewed.