Background:Another rare cause of lower back pain with radiculopathy is the discal cyst. It is believed to arise from degeneration of a herniated disc, although many other theories of its origin have been proposed. Here, we report a patient with lower back pain/radiculopathy attributed originally to a herniated lumbar disc, which transformed within 6 months into a discal cyst.Case Description:A 42-year-old male had a magnetic resonance (MR) documented herniated lumbar disc at the L4-5 level. It was managed conservatively for 6 months, after which symptoms recurred and progressed. The follow-up MR study revealed a discal cyst at the L4-5 without residual herniated disc. Of interest, the cyst communicated with the L4-5 intervertebral disc, which was herniated under the posterior longitudinal ligament and the disc space. During surgery, the cyst was completely removed, and his symptoms/signs resolved.Conclusion:A discal cyst develops as pathological sequelae of a degenerated herniated disc. Although rare, these lesions must be considered among the differential diagnoses in young patients with radicular back pain. MR study clearly documents these lesions, and surgical excision of the cyst is the treatment of choice.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is any injury resulting from an insult to the spinal cord that disrupts its major functions, either completely or incompletely, and it can be caused by both traumatic and nontraumatic events. The number of SCI patients has been continuously increasing due to increasing number of motor vehicles and average age of patients is constantly decreasing. After SCI, nerve cells located at the injured site are severely damaged and eventually die, and these dead cells are cleared away by the immune system and in turn a cavity remains. Unfortunately, till date no effective treatment strategy exists ensuring functional recovery after SCI. There is an imperative need for the development of therapies to reduce the enormous physical and financial burdens of people afflicted with SCI. The surgical treatment has been known to aid in rehabilitation, but cannot substantially improve neurologic and functional outcome after SCI. The stem cell?based therapy has been proposed as a promising treatment strategy for SCI. Many of the current strategies for treatment of SCI involve replacing the cells lost to injury with cells derived from alternative sources, such as Schwann cells, oligodendrocyte precursor cells, and neural stem cells. This review discusses the present status of various cell-based therapies, which are being used for treating SCI.

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Background:Metastasis of one cancer to another is rare. Here, we report a spinal meningioma that was infiltrated by metastatic deposits from another cancer.Case Description:A 62-year-old male presented with a progressive spastic paraparesis. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the spine suggested a well-defined intradural extramedullary (IDEM) T8 mass in the dorsal spinal canal. When excised, it proved histologically to be a meningothelial meningioma infiltrated by metastatic deposits from an adenocarcinoma.Conclusion:Tumor to tumor metastasis rarely occurs, and meningioma, owing to its biological character and increased vascularity, is one of the most common recipients of a metastases from other lesions.