Spinal myelolipoma – an extremely rare pathology within the lumbar spine: a case report and literature review

Surgical management and outcome of Extra-adrenal myelolipomas at unusual locations: A report of 11 cases in a single center

“…Myelolipoma is a rare benign tumor composed of nature adipose cells and a mixed proportion of myeloid and erythroid elements, usually occurring in the adrenal gland without endocrine function [2] , [3] . As reported in many studies [2] , [3] , [8] , EAMs have a woman predominance with the female to male ratio of 2:1, and are susceptible to the ages from 50 to 70 years. However, Cheng shen et al reported that EAMs mainly occurred in males between 50 and 70 years of age with the male to female ratio ranging from 2:1 to 1:1 [5] .…”

“…Most EAMs were found in the presacral region or peritoneal cavities and rarely in other locations [2] , [7] . As presented in Table 3 , our research on Pubmed ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ ) only retrieved 8 EAMs in the spine (n = 2) or intraosseous region (n = 6) [2] , [3] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] . Of the 2 EAMs in the spine, one was in the thoracic spinal canal [13] and the other in the lumbar vertebral body [3] .…”

“…Myelolipoma is a rare benign and nonfunctioning tumor composed of hematopoietic cells and mature adipose tissue, typically occurring in the adrenal glands with an incidence of approximately 0.08–0.4% according to autopsy studies [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] . It was firstly described by Edgar von Gierke in 1905, and then was entitled as “myelolipoma” by Charles Oberling in 1929 [5] , [6] .…”

“…Extra-adrenal myelolipoma (EAM) is even rarer, accounting for about 15% of all myelolipomas, and the predilection sites include the presacral (40%), peritoneal (20%), and thoracic (15%) cavities [2] , [7] . They are more commonly reported in women aged between the fifth and seventh decade with a female/male ratio of 2:1 [3] , [8] . However, fewer than 10 cases of EAMs in the spinal or intraosseous regions had been described in sporadic case reports by 2021 [2] , [3] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] .…”

“…They are more commonly reported in women aged between the fifth and seventh decade with a female/male ratio of 2:1 [3] , [8] . However, fewer than 10 cases of EAMs in the spinal or intraosseous regions had been described in sporadic case reports by 2021 [2] , [3] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] .…”