Surgical treatment of dumbbell neurinomas of the cervical spine

Cervical neurinomas ex-tending through the intervertebral foramen are uncommon. They raise difficult problems of surgical management. The few papers dealing with surgical technique for removal of these tumors are reviewed. The surgical approach has to be chosen from posterior, anterior, and anterolateral routes. Analysis is essentially devoted to the radicality of tumor resection, nerve root preservation, relation to the vertebral artery, and compromise of spinal stability.