Spinal inclusion dermoid cyst in a patient with a treated myelocystocoele.

Spinal epidermoid and dermoid tumours are rai neoplasms (Russell and Rubinstein, 1963). Recentl: the epidermoid type of tumour has been reporte relatively often in patients who have had multip] lumbar punctures (Blockey and Schorstein, 1961 Choremis, Economos, Papadatos, and Gargoula 1956), and has been thought to have arisen fror implanted fragments of epidermis carried into th subarachnoid space by the lumbar puncture needl4 We have examined at necropsy a 3-month-old bo who had had a thoraco-lumbar myelocystocoel repaired shortly after birth and in whom a dermoi tumour had developed in the affected region.