Combined posterior and anterior approaches for cervical intradural disc herniation: A case report

Intradural disc herniation (IDH) is an extremely rare condition. The authors report the case of a 53-year-old female who had neck and right shoulder pain associated with right-sided hemiparesis and hyperesthesia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the cervical spine (C-spine) revealed central mass-like lesions that caused the; compression of the right side of the spinal cord. The posterior surgical approach was used to remove two pieces of IDH. After surgery, the muscle strength in the right upper limb improved from Grade 0/5 to 4+/5 without surgery-related complications. Although there are some reports in literature on the radiologic features of cervical IDH (including the Halo sign, Y-sign, hawk-beak sign, and crumble disc sign), it can be difficult to diagnose radiologically. We present the clinical image of the case along with a review of the literature to remind surgeons to consider IDH as a differential diagnosis when patients are affected by anterior intradural lesions.