Difficulty in treating spinal chordoma of the thoracic vertebrae

We report a case of iterative surgery of a spinal chordoma of the 10(th) th oracic vertebra. This kind of neoplasm constitutes 3 to 7 % of primary mali gnant bone tumors, Approximately 50 % originate in the sacrum, 35 % at the base of the skull and 15 % in the true vertebrae. The slow growth delays di agnosis and compromi ses effective surgical therapy. On the basis of a revi ew of the literature, we advocate an aggressive surgical resection from the beginning, similar to management of solitary vertebral metastasis.