[Dorsal medullary compression due to a primary vertebral chondrosarcoma].
BACKGROUND
Chondrosarcomas are the second commonest type of bony tumors, although they are not commonly found to be vertebral. They may originate in healthy bone or develop in a cartilaginous lesion with sarcomatous degeneration.


METHODS
A 62 year old woman complained of pain in the back and weakness of her legs. Following magnetic resonance studies a tumour at the level of the D6-D7 vertebrae was diagnosed. This was operated on and an extradural tumour, a grade 11 chondrosarcoma was removed. A local recurrence was removed two years later and three years afterwards she is still asymptomatic.


CONCLUSIONS
A spinal chondrosarcoma is a tumour which usually presents with local pain and signs of spinal involvement. On magnetic resonance it is iso-intense on T1 and shows up with contrast. The treatment of choice is radical surgery since it does not respond well to oncological treatment.
Gelabert-González
M
M
Servicio de Neurocirugía, Hospital General de Galicia, Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Neurológicas Pedro Barrié Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, España. cimigego@usc.es
Reyes-Santías
R M
RM
García-Pravos
A
A
D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D002813:Chondrosarcoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013117:Spinal Cord Compression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed