Intraoperative sonographic characterization of a cystic intramedullary spinal cord lesion appearing as solid.

A 41-year-old woman was evaluated because of a progressive myelopathy with bowel and bladder dysfunction. She had had a subtotal resection of a conus medullaris teratoma when she was 20 years old. Emergency myelography showed a large intradural mass at L 1L2 causing an almost complete block. Delayed CT scanning confirmed an intradural mass of soft-tissue density causing abrupt attenuation of the subarachnoid space at this level (Fig. 1 A). No fat or calcium was noted within the lesion. At surgery, lOSS showed a solitary homogeneously echogenic solid mass (Fig. 1 B). Surgical exploration , however, showed that the lesion had two predominantly cystic areas, each of which was filled