Dumbbell-type hemangiopericytoma in the cervical spine: a case report and review

Excerpt

Hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a highly vascularized mesenchymal tumor [1]. HPCs are mainly located in subcutaneous tissue and skeletal muscle, rarely within the central nervous system (CNS), and extremely rarely in the spinal canal [2‐4]. HPCs in the spinal canal are either extradural or intradural. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reports on dumbbell-type intra- to extradural and paravertebral HPC of the spinal cord. Moreover, our case was recurrent, but it was successfully managed by total tumor resection. A high rate of recurrence and metastasis in HPCs has been reported, and the clinical benefit from total tumor resection has been doubted by some surgeons [5, 6]. However, there is no established adjuvant therapy for HPCs, and we therefore opted for total tumor resection. Although the degree of surgical invasiveness was high, total tumor resection provided a recurrence-free period of 5 years after surgery. Here, we report a case of a rare form of cervical HPC, a dumbbell-type intra- to extradural and paravertebral tumor, and review the literature on treating HPCs in the spine. …