[Clinical analysis of 126 patients with spinal metastases]

A series of 126 patients with spinal metastases and spinal cord lesion treated between 1963 and 1992 at Neurosurgery Department in Poznań has been presented. Neurological condition of the patient, neuroradiological and histological examinations are presented; modalities of management and results are discussed. Treatment was depended on the patient's conditions. Surgery was undertaken if spinal metastasis was the first symptom of the disease. Sixty-one per cent of patients died within 6 months after being diagnosed. Survival was longer in patients treated surgically. Fifty-six percent of them became ambulatory and in majority free of radicular pain. The longest survival was in prosthetic metastases, the shortest in pulmonary ones.