Spinal Tumor - What Do You Know About It?

Hello,

I am Dr. Arun Sharma consultant Neurosurgeon. I received my neurosurgical training from the nationally reputed GB pant hospital affiliated with Maulana Azad Medical College and Delhi University. I have received further training in neurosurgery from John Hopkins, Baltimore and Pittsburgh USA. Today we are going to talk about the spinal tumors which are a very important part of the disease in many patients. The spinal tumor means Jo spine ke ander tumor hai our spine is made up of 33 column of bones, these bones form a circle and inside this circle lies a spinal cord which causes the transmission of messages from our brain to various parts of our body and messages from various parts of our body to the brain.

Spinal tumor, any tumor, what is a tumor? tumor is an abnormal growth of cell mass, which can cause compression and create a problem for the patient, here we see that spinal tumor can lie anywhere across the spine, it can lie outside the spinal cord, it can lie inside the spinal cord and it can within the spinal cord. The tumors which lie outside the spinal cord are extradural and they arise from this bone mass, from the nerve root, from the dura mater and they can be ewing's sarcoma, sometimes neurofibromas also lie outside the spinal cord, then come the intradural extramedullary, which are inside the spinal cord but outside the spinal cord substance they are inside the dura mater. They cause compression of the spinal cord and cause the patient symptoms, these may include neurofibroma, schwannoma and meningiomas which are the most common.

Then we have intramedullary tumors which are mostly gliomas or ependymomas, which developed in the substance of the spinal cord and these are one of the most devastating tumors, the majority of spinal tumors are benign matlab ki cancerous nahin hai. What are the presentations caused by the tumor which bring a patient to the doctor? it can be local pain, local pain kamar mein kahin bhi kisi bhi hisse mein dard ho sakta hai. Dusra radicular pain ek pair mein dard jo raha hai jaise disk khisakne ka dard hota hai vaisa dard ho sakta hai, hath pair mein kamjori aa sakti hai, bladder-bowel control kho sakta hai, sensation ja sakti hai, chalne mein dikkat ho sakti hai, likhane mein dikkat ho sakti hain, kisi bhi saman ko pakdane mein dikkat ho sakti hai ye sab anya samasyaen spinal cord tumor ki vajah se ho sakti hai. Kahi bahar spine mein tedapan bhi tumor ki vajah se ho sakta hai jisko scoliosis khate hain. Diagnostic workup, it includes a detailed neurological examination of the patient which will point to the deficits in the patient and will help us in asking for investigations of that respective part which can be cervical, dorsal or lumbar sacral. We should get an MRI of the spine of that related part with contrast CT of the spine may or may not be required as per the symptoms of the patient. uroflowmetry and urodynamics studies may be required on a case-to-case basis.

Now management, management includes excision of the spinal tumor without causing further neurological deficit, this helps in improving the quality of life, this reverses the patient's symptoms, the patient's deficit don't increase, they improve with rehabilitation, so surgical excision of the spinal tumors which are causing symptoms in the patient is the management of the spinal tumor. These tumors if excised surgically and on time, they can help in leading a better quality of life in these patients. So my advice is whenever you have a spinal tumor which is causing symptoms, you should consult a doctor, don't ignore the symptoms, you should properly get it investigated and if excised on time it will help you. I thank you all for listening to this talk on spinal tumors.

Thank you