PARAGANGLIONA OF THE CAUDA-EQUINA - CLINI CAL AND MRI FINDINGS - A CASE-REPORT

The clinical and imaging features of a paraganglioma of the cauda equi na are presented. A peridural anesthesia revealed the cauda equina com pression syndrom in a 68 years old man who presented first with a urin ary retention. Total surgical excision of a long round-shaped encapsul ated tumor was uneventful. Macroscopically this lesion filled up the s pinal canal and resembled to a meningioma. It was firmly attached to t he filum terminale. Adjacent large arterialized vessels visible on MRT were spared. Although the diagnosis could be evoked pre-operatively o n some suggestive patterns on the MRI, the pathological findings final ly confirmed the diagnosis of paraganglioma. Along with the evidence o f specific light microscopic features, the use of an immunocytochemica l demonstration of synaptophysine in these tumors allows a confident d iagnosis to be made.