Clinical Analysis of Spinal Cord Tumors:Review of 105 Cases(981-1991)

ABSTRACT

The authors analyzed 105 cases of spinal cord tumor in regarding to the age, sex, location and distribution, clinical presentation and postoperative outcome. They were confirmed by pathologic study at the Kyung Hee Medical Cented from 1981 to 1991. The incidence of spinal cord tumors was slightly predominant in males. The most commom tumor was neurogenic tumor. The neurogenic tumor composed 43.8%(46 cases), and the rests were meningioma 15.2%(16 case), metstasis 10.5%(11 cases) and others. The tumor were located most frequently in the thoracic area(31.4%) and in the intradural extramedullary space(56.1%). Most common initial symptom of spinal cord tumors were pain and it's mean duration was 8.3 month. The patients were assigned to one of four groups according to their neurologic deficit. About 66.6%(70 cases) of the patients were included in Groups I and II(mild neurologic deficit), and others were classified in Groups III and IV(significant to severe neurologic deficit). Complete tumor removal was achieved in 70.4%(4 cases) of the patients, and subtotal removal was performed in 26.7%(28 cases), and biopsy was performed in 2.9%(3 cases). Among the 105 patients, the postoperative outcomes on dischage were recovery in 36 cases(34.3%), improved in 45 cases(42.9%), stationary state in 12 cases(11.4%), and progression in 12 cases(11.4%).