Chordoma of the Cervical Spine in a Competition Athlete: Case Report and Long-term Follow Up

Introduction: Chordoma is a rare type of low-grade malignant neoplasm that arised from the remnants of the embryonic notochord. Observed mainly in the clivus and sacrum but can occur anywhere along the spine. Several treatment approaches are described. Treatment outcomes are significantly influenced by the size and location of the tumor. Clinical presentation and follow up: We report a 19-year-old female professional athlete with a cervical chordoma, involving C2, C3 and C4 vertebrae with spinal cord compression. Diagnosis was established by open biopsy. The patient was surgically treated in three steps: one anterior resection of the lesion was carried out, followed by a posterior resection and finally an arthrodesis and anterior fixation. The patient was referred to rehabilitation and one year after the first surgery she resumed competitive sport activities. No recurrences were observed within fifteen years of follow-up. *Corresponding author: Michel Kanas, Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP-EPM), Sao Paulo, Brazil, Tel: 5511976725156; E-mail: [email protected] Received January 27, 2015; Accepted February 16, 2015; Published February 18, 2015 Citation: Wajchenberg M, Kanas M, Martins DE, Rodrigues LMR, Garcia RJ, et al.(2015) Chordoma of the Cervical Spine in a Competition Athlete: Case Report and Long-term Follow Up. J Spine 4: 216.doi:10.4172/21657939.1000216 Copyright: © 2015 Wajchenberg M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.