Symptoms
The patient initially had mild back pain and presented to the orthopedic surgeon; X-rays revealed a deformation of the 6th cervical vertebral body. This initially took a backseat to cardiac bypass surgery which was to be performed. The patient then had persistent discomfort radiating to the left arm without neurological deficits.
Diagnosis
An MRI of the cervical spine revealed extensive metastatic infiltration of the C6, C7, T1 and T2 vertebral bodies. The C6 to T1 vertebral bodies demonstrated pathological sintering fractures with involvement of the posterior edge, with conglomerate formation with the intervertebral spaces. In addition, this finding resulted in spinal canal stenosis with restriction of the spinal cord. There was no myelomalacia. The CT of the cervical spine subsequently performed confirmed a mass in C6 and C7 with complete destabilizing destruction of the vertebral bodies and growth into the spinal canal, relocation of the spinal cord posteriorly and compression of the spinal cord at the level of C6 to T1. With an initially unclear primary tumor, there was a histologically confirmed diagnosis of a plasmacytoma postoperatively.
You will find the therapy used, including preoperative imaging, in our case study for download.
