Dumbbell-shaped spinal solitary fibrous tumor: Combined approach and a review of the literature

Introduction: Spinal solitary fibrous tumors are rare entities, particularly when considered in a dumbbell-shaped form.

Case description: The authors report on a 23-year-old female patient with dorsalgia and a D11-D12 dumbbell-shaped lesion on MRI, and highly vascularized on angiography. After a biopsy-based diagnosis, an integrated approach was performed with a preoperative embolization of the feeding intercostal arteries and an en bloc resection. At 3 months postoperatively, the patient had no pain or other neurologic symptoms and a complete resection was performed and documented on MRI.

Conclusion: To our knowledge, only 3 previous reports of dumbbell-shaped spinal solitary fibrous tumors were carried-out and this is the first case, to our knowledge, treated by pre-operatory embolization. Nevertheless, this tumor should be considered among other spinal dumbbell-shaped lesions with a differential diagnosis, i.e. meningioma and schwannoma.