Spinal Cord Hamartoma

Abstract

Spinal cord hamartoma is rare disease. Many authors reported that most of hamartomas occured in patients with tuberous sclerosis, spinal dysraphism or neurofibromatosis type I. There were very few cases unrelated with these disease throughout the world. We present a case of spinal cord hamartoma which is not associated with tuberous sclerosis or neurofibromatosis and describe the clinical presentation, radiological appearance, pathological features and treatment of this unique disease entity. A 29-year-old female patient presented with progressive myelopathy for 7 months. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a thoracic intramedullary tumor that was extended from T1 to T4. The tumor was resected through the posterior approach and the patient improved postoperatively. We report a rare case of spinal cord hamartoma that was verified pathologically. Although the magnetic resonance imaging may be helpful in determining the extent of this lesion, it cannot be used to distinguish neoplastic lesions from non-neoplastic ones. Microsurgical resection is considered to the therapeutic option for these disease.