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Rare disease
‘Serpent in the spine’: a case of giant spinal ependymoma of cervicothoracic spine
  1. Arlizan Arrifin1,
  2. Chandrasekaran Kaliaperumal1,
  3. Catherine Keohane2,
  4. Michael O'Sullivan1
  1. 1Department of Neurosurgery, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Republic of Ireland
  2. 2Department of Neuropathology, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Republic of Ireland
  1. Correspondence to Chandrasekaran Kaliaperumal, ckaliaperumal{at}gmail.com

We describe a case of giant spinal ependymoma of cervicothoracic spine in a 30-year-old lady who presented with progressive spastic paraparesis and significant combined upper and lower motor neuron signs in her lower limbs over a 1-year period. She also had upper limb small muscle wasting with absent reflexes and diminished sensation. She was wheel chair bound with involvement of sphincters. Neuroimaging revealed a uniformly enhancing intramedullary lesion from C2–T3 level with associated syringomyelia. She underwent a complete excision of this World Health Organisation (WHO) II cellular ependymoma, resulting in significant clinical outcome and improvement in bladder and bowel function.

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Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Patient consent Obtained.