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Retrolumbar subcutaneous ependymoma and giant bathing-trunk nevocellular nevus
J Bourlond1, A Bourlond, C Rousseau
1Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
Background:
Subcutaneous ependymomas have been reported rarely in dermatologic reviews and, apparently, were never associated with other cutaneous malformations.
Methods:
A 60-year-old woman with a retrolumbar subcutaneous ependymoma and a giant bathing-trunk nevocellular nevus submitted to thorough dermatologic and neurologic investigation. The surgical material was extensively analyzed with light and electron microscope. The literature was reviewed.
Results:
The tumor fits exactly the classical prerequisites of the clinical and pathologic diagnosis. In contrast with the literature, it developed at 53 years, apparently after a trauma, within a congenital giant nevocellular nevus, at the retrolumbar level; it proved unrelated to any spinal cord alteration and so far appeared quite benign.
Conclusions:
The observation of a retrolumbar subcutaneous ependymoma is reported with detail; this tumor exceptionally recognized by dermatologists must be included in the differential diagnosis of lumps arising in the retrolumbar-retrosacral area. The most peculiar feature was its development within a giant bathing-trunk nevocellular nevus; such a fascinating association of two neurectodermal defects, as far as known, is presented for the first time.