INTRASPINAL LIPOMAS

Abstract

Masses of adipose tissue within the cranium and within the spinal canal not associated with bifid spines are rare. Intracranial lipoma, reported cases of which numbered 74 up to 1936 (Sperling and Alpers¹), rarely produces clinical symptoms because of its small size, and no reported tumor of this sort had been attacked surgically. Intraspinal lipoma is even less common, but it frequently grows to enormous size, produces compression of the spinal cord and is surgically exposed. When it is encountered, its true nature is unsuspected until the yellow mass is visualized or, when the tumor is reddish or white, until histologic examination is made. Elsberg's²series of data on 267 cases of extra-medullary tumors, compiled in 1941, included 6 instances of lipoma. It is probable, however, that the 2 tumors lying both intradurally and extradurally were associated with spina bifida, since Wolf,³in discussing what appears to