[Follow-up study of benign tumors of the spine]

A report is given on long-term results after the removal of spinal mengiomas and neurinomas. A total of 150 patients with meningiomas and 80 patients with spinal neurinomas were operated on within a period of 25 years at the Neurosurgical Clinic in the Division Medicine of the Karl-Marx-University Leipzig. The primary results of the operations are secertained by a comparison of the preand portoperative ability to walk. Improvements were found in one third of all patients after meningioma operations and in more than ten per cent of the patients after removal of a neurinoma. The long-term rests were ascertained by means of questioning all patients that could be contracted after 2 to 25 years, sending them a questionaire in the form of a reply card. The number of patients who had become able to walk had doubles as compared with the condition before the operation: 56 per cent of all patients after meningioma operations and 64 per cent of all patients after removal of a spinal neurinoma. The long-term results have not been mainly influenced by the age of the patients and by the duration of the anamnesis. The greatest threat for patients with benign spinal tumours are the misjudging of the disease and a certain loss of time when paralysis was threatening. The prognosis in operations for relapses was considerably worse. So radical surgery in the first intervention must be attached the greatest importance. A tendency to infiltrations in case of meningiomas, especially in juvenile patients, and the overlooking of the smallest parts of extradural tumours in case of neuromas are frequent causes of the development of relapses and should be taken into account when carrying out the first ingervention.