Ancient schwannoma of the cauda equina

Tumors of the cauda equina generally present with lower back pain. They are usually recognized at a late stage as they grow slowly, the surrounding anatomical environment is spacious, the symptoms that appear are not specific, and the majority of the affected patients are young and otherwise healthy. In this paper, we present the diagnosis and treatment of a young male patient who has undergone the surgical removal of an ancient schwannoma of the cauda equina. During the operation, the tumor was completely resected, and following that the patient's complaints disappeared. The key point to an accurate diagnosis of this kind of tumor before the operation was the appropriate radiological study, i.e., T1-, T2-weighted MRI, and postoperatively the histological processing of the removed neoplasm. Reviewing the literature, this pathological type of schwannoma appeared to be extremely rare in the cauda equina: so far, only three cases have been published internationally, however, we could not find a single paper in the Hungarian medical literature on this topic. Orv Hetil. 2022; 163(5): 195-200.