Adult intramedullary mature teratoma of the spinal cord: review of the literature illustrated with an unusual example

Abstract

Intramedullary mature teratomas particularly in adults are rarely encountered. In this manuscript the authors have reviewed the adult intramedullary lesions of the spinal cord published in the literature that are harbouring the characteristics of a mature teratoma and analysed the results with respect to histopathology, epidemiology, diagnostic methods and treatment. An illustrative case of an extremely unusual localization is also presented.

Intramedullary Teratoma in an Adolescent Patient

“…1 Spinal teratoma is very rare and accounts for 0.2 to 0.5% of all spinal cord tumors. 2 Teratoma involves males more often than females, but our patient was female. 3 Most patients present with myelopathy, myeloradiculopathy, or radiculopathy, depending on the location of tumor.…”

Unusual association of intraspinal extramedullary teratoma with congenital scoliosis in an elderly adult: case report and literature review

“…Intraspinal teratomas have been commonly reported in relation to abnormal neural tube including diastematomyelia, myelomeningocele and tethered cord syndrome [9,10]. The occurrence of intraspinal teratomas associated with congenital scoliosis is rare, and is more common among infants and adolescents than among adults [8].…”

“…Heterogeneous signal intensity on MR images indicated a solid and cystic composition of the tumor, which would be helpful for diagnosis of teratomas in the early stage [11,13]. Correspondingly, teratomas in histopathology are composed of the heterogeneous remnants of all three germ cell layers, and are classified as mature, immature or malignant type [10]. Mature teratomas, represented by our case, contained fully differentiated tissue elements such as cartilage, squamous epithelial cells, glands, mucosal tissue and neural elements.…”

Spinal intradural extramedullary mature cystic teratoma in young adult: a rare tumor with review of literature

“…The association of teratomas and spinal malformations such as spina bifida, partial sacral agenesis, hemivertebrae, myelomeningocele, tethered cord syndrome, and diastematomyelia has been described in the literature. 7 Besides congenital abnormality, cases have been reported where a history of trauma or surgical interventions (example lumbar puncture) often preceded the clinical presentation in adults. 6 However, present patient did not show any evidence of spinal dysraphism during physical and radiologic examination.…”