Spinal Tumours

Spinal cord tumours can be either benign or malignant. This website concentrates mainly on benign spinal cord tumours. Although benign tumours may not be particularly harmful in most parts of the body this differs where spinal tumours are concerned as damage to the spinal cord or nerves can cause many problems.

Symptoms

Initial symptoms can vary. They can include pain and sensory changes (eg numbness) and motor problems (eg muscle weakness and spasticity). The parts of the body which may be affected by these symptoms may vary according to the location of the tumour along the spinal canal.

Diagnosis

Several neurological tests will be performed. If necessary you will also have an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan. This will show the spinal cord in detail.

Treatment

If a spinal cord tumour is diagnosed the most common form of treatment is for it to be removed by surgery. This will be carried out by a neurosurgeon. In some cases it isn’t possible to remove the whole tumour and the growth of the residual tumour is usually monitored by regular MRI scans. Sometimes surgery isn’t recommended because the damage it might do to the nervous system is considered too risky, and your consultant will discuss your options with you following your diagnosis.

Long term effects of benign spinal cord tumours

This can be very difficult to predict. Sometimes the nerves can recover to some extent but in other cases there may be some permanent nerve damage.

Further information can be found on the Patient.co.uk website.