[Spinal osteoblastoma. Report of 8 cases]

The authors studied the special features of the vertebral location of this benign tumour of osteoblastic origin in eight cases of spinal osteoblastoma. Clinically, neurological complications are frequently present and scolioses may arise and persist after treatment; radiologically, new imaging techniques enable the limits of the tumour to be assessed with greater accuracy with respect to the neighbouring bone and their relationship to the components of the vertebral canal; surgically, there are difficulties specific to this location raised by the proximity of nervous components, and also by the vertebral destabilization entailed by the considerable bone involvement. Anatomicopathological diagnosis remains difficult, particularly in the case of osteoid osteoma.