title: Ligamentum flavum hematomas of the cervical and thoracic spine.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report extremely rare cases of ligamentum flavum hematomas in the cervical and thoracic spine. Only six cases of thoracic ligamentum flavum hematomas and three cases of cervical ligamentum flavum hematomas have been reported so far.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two patients presented with tetraparesis and one patient presented with radicular pain and paresthesias in the T3 dermatome. MRI was performed in two patients, which showed a posterior intraspinal mass, continuous with the ligamentum flavum. The mass was moderately hypointense on T2-weighted images and hyperintense on T1-weighted images with no contrast enhancement. The third patient underwent cervical myelography because of a cardiac pacemaker. The myelography showed an intraspinal posterior mass with compression of the dural sac at C3/C4.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All patients underwent a hemilaminectomy to resect the ligamentum flavum hematoma and recovered completely afterwords, and did not experience a recurrence during follow-up of at least 2 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This case series shows rare cases of ligamentum flavum hematomas in the cervical and thoracic spine. Surgery achieved complete recovery of the preoperative symptoms in all patients within days.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany. Electronic address: wild.florian@mh-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wild
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Clinical Center Idar-Oberstein, Idar-Oberstein, Germany.
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tuettenberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Municipal Hospital Ludwigshafen, Ludwigshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grau
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuropathology, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weis
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Joachim K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Krauss
mesh_terms: D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006406:Hematoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007796:Laminectomy; D017843:Ligamentum Flavum / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013125:Spinal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Cervical spine; Hematoma; Ligamentum flavum; Thoracic spine