Osseous hemangioma of the seventh cervical vertebra with osteoid formation mimicking metastasis: a case report.
BACKGROUND
We report the case of an osseous hemangioma located in the seventh cervical vertebra with reactive osteoid formation and non-typical findings in the radiological and the histopathological examination, mimicking metastasis of a malignant tumor. To our knowledge, this is the first description of such a case in the literature.


METHODS
A 44-year-old otherwise healthy Caucasian German woman presented with a discrete sensorimotor loss of both upper limbs. Radiologically, an osteolysis in the seventh cervical vertebra suggestive of metastasis of a malignant neoplasm was diagnosed. After performing corporectomy and cage implantation of C7 on the patient, the histopathological examination was complicated by marked osteoid formation obscuring the true diagnosis of an osseous hemangioma with reactive osteoid formation.


CONCLUSIONS
Though hemangioma of the bone is a rare tumorous lesion in the cervical spine, it has to be taken into consideration as a reason for neck pain and sensomotoric loss of the upper limbs. Atypical radiological and histopathological presentations may hinder determination of the correct diagnosis. The treatment of such lesions must follow clinical guidelines but may be difficult to define in some cases when the correct diagnosis is not known at the time when therapy starts.
Lakemeier
Stefan
S
Department of Orthopaedics, University Hospital Giessen and Marburg, Location Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35033 Marburg, Germany.
Westhoff
Christina Carolin
CC
Fuchs-Winkelmann
Susanne
S
Schofer
Markus Dietmar
MD