A Case Report of Adult Pineoblastoma Occurring in a Pregnant Woman.
Background/aim Pineoblastoma of the adult age is an uncommon tumor with only 200 cases reported. A standardized approach for an optimal adjuvant strategy is currently lacking. The case presented herein also deals with the issue of central nervous system tumors in pregnancy. Case report A 21-year-old pregnant woman presented with massive hydrocephalus due to a mass in the pineal region detected with MRI. After positioning an urgent ventricular derivation, a cesarean section was performed. During a third ventriculocisternostomy, a biopsy revealed a pineoblastoma. After a maximal safe resection, postoperative craniospinal irradiation for a total dose of 36 Gy plus a sequential boost to the tum…
Preliminary Experience with a Novel System of Facet Fixation to Treat Patients with Lumbar Degenerative Disease. A New Perspective in Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery?
Purpose We report our experience with a novel surgical device for the treatment of lumbar degenerative microinstability. Facet Wedge (DePuy Synthes, Raynham, Massachusetts, United States) is a novel technique of intra-articular lumbar facet fixation that provides a minimally invasive alternative to standard posterior fixation. Materials and Methods From November 2014 to July 2015, 38 patients underwent single-level Facet Wedge implantation. The main surgical indications included herniated disk (18 patients), spinal canal and foraminal stenosis (14 patients), and Meyerding grade I degenerative spondylolisthesis (6 patients). All the patients showed radiologic signs of microinstability: hype…
Pediatric Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma with Concomitant Involvement of Spine and Central Nervous System: A Case Report and Review of Literature
Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a histological subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, largely characterized by anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positivity, resulting from the chromosomal translocation t(2;5). We report a pediatric case of ALK-positive ALCL with primary concomitant involvement of bone and central nervous system (CNS); thereafter, a literature review about pediatric primary bone and primary CNS ALCL was conducted. According to the analyzed data, our case is unique because it is characterized by the contemporary involvement of the spine and CNS. During and after chemotherapy, our patient was monitored by detecting minimal residual disease (MRD) through the analysis of fusio…