Epidemiological Characteristics of the Spine Tumors in a Single Tertiary Centre of Nepal

Background Spine tumors can be primary or secondary, depending on their origin. Metastasis compromises the majority of spine tumors. Primary tumors of the spine are rare and mostly asymptomatic; consequently, their real incidence cannot be investigated. Primary malignancies of the spine are even rarer. Most epidemiological data for spine tumors comes from registries in developed countries. Objective To provide epidemiological data on spine tumors in a single tertiary hospital in Nepal. Method This is a descriptive cross-sectional study done at the department of orthopaedics at Dhulikhel Hospital. The study was done using retrospective hospital records from January 2010 to December 2024. The data related to all the spine tumors admitted under the department of orthopedics during the study's duration were included. Records without complete, relevant information were excluded. We took data from 135 patients admitted for spine tumors. The information related to the demography, site of tumors, types of tumors, and histological diagnosis was entered in Google Sheets and exported for descriptive analysis in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Result Among the 135 patients, the most common site of spine tumor was thoracic (42.22%). Primary benign neoplasms were the most common (n=68), and among the 61 malignancies, 36 were secondary and 25 were primary malignancies. Schwannomas were the most common benign tumors in the spine (n=23). The most common site for secondaries in the spine was the lungs (n=11). Conclusion This study's results represent data on the epidemiology of spinal tumors from a single institute. Although this data is far too small to represent the whole country, in the absence of registries or other large multicentric databases, it can shed some light on the less studied spine tumors in Nepal.