Intradural Spinal Cord Tumor Resections by a Neurosurgeon at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Brett D. Rosenthal, Tarun Ramayya, David V. LaBorde, Gerald E. Rodts

Introduction: Intradural spinal cord tumors are rare. A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients who underwent surgical resection of an intradural spinal cord tumor between 9/4/1998 and 10/1/2010 by one surgeon. Methods: Cases included adults (>18 years old) who had undergone spinal tumor resections. Endpoints examined included complication rates, discharge destinations, and lengths of hospitalization. Data was obtained via chart abstraction. Contingency tables were created, and estimates of relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to determine the relationship between the endpoints of interest and a variety of variables (e.g., sex, ethnicity, tumor location). Sixty-six cases met the inclusion criteria. Results: The median lengths of stay for males and females were 4 and 5 days, respectively; the distributions in the two groups differed significantly (Mann-Whitney U=541.5, nmale=30, nfemale=36, P<.05 two-tailed), but the two sexes did not have a statistically different risk of having non-home discharge destinations, or surgical complications. Whether or not a patient is Caucasian had no statistically significant correlation to the clinical outcomes of interest. Patients with intramedullary tumors were 3.0 (95% CI [1.7 – 5.2]) times more likely to have non-home discharge destinations and 2.3 (95% CI [1.1 – 3.0]) times more likely to encounter surgical complications than patients with extramedullary tumors. Finally, tumor resections that required arthrodesis were 2.1 (95% CI [1.1-4.0]) times more likely to be discharged to non-home destinations than resections that did not require arthrodesis. Conclusion: Though this analysis is limited by the small number of tumors identified, it is one of the largest of its kind to date