INTRADURAL SPINAL HIBERNOMA - CASE-REPORT

BACKGROUND Hibernoma is a rare, benign tumor arising from vestigial re mnants of brown adipose tissue. It usually affects muscle and subcutan eous tissue and is asymptomatic and slow growing. METHODS A review of the worldwide literature contains about 110 cases of hibernomas. Howev er, only two cases (including our case) of hibernoma located in the in tradural spine have been reported. We present an extremely rare case o f intradural extramedullary spinal hibernoma and summarize the magneti c resonance imaging (MRI) findings of the lesion. CASE DESCRIPTION A 3 5-year-old woman suffered from motor weakness and numbness of the left upper extremity. Cervical spinal MRI revealed an intradural extramedu llary mass at C7. She underwent surgery via the posterior approach and the lesion was completely removed. Histopathologic examination showed multivacuolated cells with centrally placed nuclei, and the diagnosis of hibernoma was made. CONCLUSIONS Because the CT and MRI findings of hibernoma are almost same as those of other lipomatous tumors, a surg ical specimen of this tumor is necessary to establish the correct diag nosis. Early diagnosis and total resection are necessary as some cases showed malignant features or rapid growth. Etiologically, the tumor m ay have developed by the ectopic growth or migration of adipose tissue . (C) 1998 by Elsevier Science Inc.