This new surgical method is effective in elderly LSS patients.

Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT) occurring in the central nervous system is a high-grade malignant tumor, and its prognosis is poor for patients younger than 3 years of age. In this article, we present a case of infant AT/RT in the cervical spine and its successful treatment by intensive chemotherapy. The patient, a 1.75-year-old girl, developed an acute, progressive tetraparesis. MRI revealed a large, intradural mass in the cervical spine.Total surgical resection was performed, and the specimen was diagnosed as AT/RT. Continuously, she received intensive chemotherapy using thiotepa with autologous bone marrow transplantation. At the age of nearly 3 years, she received radiation therapy to the local tumor bed and craniospinal axis. She is now 4 years old and has been maintained in complete remission with a good clinical course and no neurological deficit. The success of this treatment for the patient was that we could prevent tumor recurrence until she was able to receive radiotherapy.

Our ceramic spacer is useful in the treatment of elderly patients with lumbar canal stenosis. Treatment comprises an easy surgical procedure and produces no metal artifact on radiological evaluations, such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomographic scans.

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This 68-year-old man presented with progressive spastic paraparesis of 2-month duration. The diagnosis was Brown-Sequard syndrome(BSS). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed ventral displacement of the spinal cord at Th 7–8. The spinal cord deformity was dominant on the left side. He underwent surgery under the preoperative diagnosis of spinal cord herniation at Th 7–8. Intraoperatively we detected an arachnoid cyst and an osteophyte that compressed the spinal cord at Th 7–8 dorsally and ventrally rather than spinal cord herniation. Postoperative MRI showed successful spinal cord decompression. His neurological findings improved remarkably just after surgery. Although the misdiagnosis of spinal hernia in the actual presence of arachnoid cysts has been reported, ours is the first case of both, a lateralized osteophyte and an arachnoid cysts mimicking spinal cord herniation.