Discrimination between spinal extradural meningioma and both intra and extradural meningioma: Case Report

Meningiomas are common spinal tumor and mostly located at intradura. Recurrence rate after surgery for extradural meningioma was higher than intradural meningioma. A patient with intra and extradural spinal meningioma was treated and discussed its features and clinical management. A 41-year-old woman noted numbness of bilateral legs, gait disturbance, and mild bladder disturbance for over the two-month period. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an epidural mass at T8-9 involving the dura mater from the left side. Intraoperatively, ultrasonography showed extradural tumor suppress the dura from the left side and no subarachnoid space. Therefore, it was difficult to diagnose the tumor was located at only extradural or both intra and extradural. The extradural tumor was resected as much as possible, then ultrasonography was performed for the second time. The spinal cord was decompressed and subarachnoid space was appeared with intradural tumor. The dura mater was opened in the midline for intradural exploration, and the intradural tumor appeared beside the spinal cord. The dura mater with attachment to the tumor was rescected. To prevent a recurrence, ultrasonography after removing extradural tumor is recommended to detect intra dural tumor and invasion of tumor into dura mater. In such case, removing only extradural meningioma is not enough, and gross total resection including intradural meningioma and dura mater is required.