The case of a 43-year-old woman with a several month history of severe back pain is reported. CT and MR imaging revealed an intramedullary cystic tumor, which was considered a dermoid cyst or teratoma. During surgery, the tumor was found within the base of the filum terminale and completely resected. Microscopic studies revealed a mature teratoma with an intramural carcinoid nodule. Thirteen-mo...

Paragangliomas are neuroendocrine tumors that originate from cells migrating from the neural crest. They have a diverse localizations, and are common in the head, neck, mediastinum or retroperitoneum. Their growth in the filum terminale region is very infrequent. We report the case of a patient who suffered an acute cauda equina syndrome. We give a detailed description of the diagnostic process...

Spinal cord tumours account for about 15% of central nervous system neoplasms. Intramedullary tumours arise within the substance of the spinal cord, whereas extramedullary tumours are extrinsic to the cord. About two thirds of spinal cord tumors in adults are extramedullary in location, among which nerve sheath tumors, meningiomas and Filum terminale ependymomas account for the most. Metastatic...

A 38-year-old man presented with a highly symptomatic lumbar intradural extramedullary tumor. MRI features strongly suggested a myxopapillary ependymoma, with a possible drop metastasis. No filum terminale or spinal-cord attachment to the tumor was seen intraoperatively. Histopathology, surprisingly, indicated a malignant round-cell tumor, strongly CD 99-positive, and FISH indicated a rearrange...

Diastematomyelia is a rare congenital anomaly characterized by a division of the spinal cord or the filum terminale into two parts. In Korea, only one case has been reported. The authors have operated on 5 cases of diastematomyelia with septum since July, 1978. The ages ranged from 1 to 44 years (median; 11 years). There were 2 boys, 2 girls and an adult man. The disease manifested by cutaneous...

Perineural or Tarlov cysts were first described by Tarlov [1] in 1938 during his autopsy studies of the filum terminale [1]. Studies have shown the prevalence of these cysts to vary from 4.6% in some to upto 9% in others [2,3]. Although most of these lesions are asymptomatic, on rare occasions, they may cause local or radicular pain, dysesthesia or paresthesia, paresis and bladder or bowel dysf...

Filum terminale arteriovenous fistula (FTAVF) presenting as a cause of failed back surgery syndrome is a rare entity. We report a 48-year-old male patient who presented with clinical features of a conus medullaris/cauda equina lesion. He had upper and lower motor neuron signs in both the lower limbs with autonomic dysfunction. The patient was misdiagnosed and was operated twice earlier for lumb...