Health information on Tarlov cyst and relative disorders
This tumor is disguised as a sacral cyst
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A middle-aged female patient has been experiencing sacrococcygeal pain accompanied by numbness in the buttocks for four years. Over the past three months, her symptoms have worsened, particularly when standing or sitting for prolonged periods, but find relief when lying flat. Her urination and defecation remain normal.
Her symptoms are reminiscent of a sacral cyst.
Despite undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at multiple hospitals, the diagnosis remained uncertain, with each facility concluding that the imaging findings were similar to a sacral cyst.
However, Dr. Zheng’s team conducted a thorough review of the images and noticed discrepancies between the MRI signals and those typically associated with a sacral cyst or a sacral cyst with bleeding, which led them to suspect a sacral tumor. They prepared for surgery with two potential diagnoses in mind.
During the surgery, the team discovered that the lesion was indeed a sacral canal tumor, intimately associated with the cauda equina nerve. The tumor was successfully resected under microscope, and the patient’s postoperative symptoms have virtually disappeared without any neurological damage.
The postoperative pathological report confirmed the diagnosis of ependymoma, a tumor that typically originates in the ventricles of the brain and can spread into the spinal canal through cerebrospinal fluid. A subsequent whole brain and spinal MRI examination ruled out the presence of any other lesions, indicating that this was a rare case of a primary ependymoma of the sacral canal. The key to successful treatment involved complete resection of the tumor and postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy.
