Thoracic Spinal Epidural Angiolipoma. A Case Report.

Abstract

Spinal angiolipoma is a rare benign tumor. In the past, authors classified spinal lipomas and angiolipoma together, but now angiolipomas are considered a separate entity from lipomas. The majority of spinal angiolipomas are of the noninfiltrating epidural type, but some are of the infiltrating type including our case and a few cases are intramedullary. Infiltrating angiolipomas extend into the bony compartment of the vertebral column or the thoracic cavity. We experienced a case of epidural angiolipoma infiltrating into the Th3 vertebral body.A 65 year-old male experienced difficulty in controlling his lower limbs. MRI revealed a spindle mass at the level of Th2 to Th4. The lesion was isointense on T1-weighted image and hyperintense on T2-weighted image. After Gd-DTPA, it was enhanced.Resecting the tumor by osteoplastic laminectomy improved the clinical symptoms.