Clinical Outcomes of Surgical Management of Primary Brachial Plexus Tumors

Introduction This study evaluates the clinical presentation, tumor characteristics, and clinical outcomes of surgically treated benign and malignant brachial plexus tumors (BPTs). Methods A prospective study of patients with BPTs from June 2015 to August 2020 was conducted. All patients underwent surgical resection with microneurolysis and intraoperative electrical stimulation to preserve the functioning nerve fascicles. Results Fourteen patients with 15 BPTs underwent surgical resection. Mean age was 37.8 ± 12.3 years; with male to female ratio 4:10. The clinical presentations were swelling (100%), pain (84.6%), and paresthesia (76.9%). The lesions involved roots (5/15), trunk (5/15), division (1/15), and cords (4/15). Thirteen patients had benign pathology (8 schwannomas, 3 neurofibromas, 2 lipomas) and two had malignant neurofibrosarcoma. Gross total resection was achieved in all cases except a dumbbell tumor. The mean follow-up period was 24 ± 5 months. Postoperatively, all patients reported improvement in pain and paresthesia with no new sensory deficit. All patients had developed initial motor weakness (Grades 2–4); however, full power (Grade 5) was recovered by 3 to 5 months. Conclusion Total resection can be achieved by appropriate microneural dissection and electrophysiologic monitoring and is potentially curative with preserving function.

A Case Series of Surgically Treated Spinal Dumbbell Tumors of Critical Parent Nerve Roots: To Cut or Not to Cut?

BACKGROUND Dumbbell tumors present challenging cases, with either an incomplete tumor resection or a need to sacrifice nerve roots. Published literature suggests encouraging neurological outcomes after nerve root amputation. OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence of postoperative neurological deficits after amputating the parent nerve root. METHODS A retrospective consecutive analysis of all patients treated for dumbbell nerve sheet tumors with a reported amputation of the functional relevant parent nerve roots C5-Th1 and L3-S1. RESULTS Among 21 evaluated patients, minor postoperative neurological motor function deterioration occurred in 4 patients (19%). Most patients recovered to the preoperative level at the follow-up examination, and only one patient retained a new Medical Research Council (MRC) scale of 4/5 for deltoid weakness. The majority of tumors were resected at the lumbar level (nerve root L3: 28.6%, L5: 19%). Gross total resection was achieved in 90.5% of patients. Neuropathic pain was reported in one third of the patients during the long-term follow-up. CONCLUSION Amputating critical parent nerve roots during the dumbbell tumor resections seems to result in a low incidence of postoperative motor deficits and may offer an acceptable sacrifice in otherwise only incompletely resectable dumbbell tumors. The cross-innervation of neighboring nerve roots and its, probably, per-se-reduced functionality may be a possible mechanism for maintaining motor function.

Synovial Sarcoma of the Spine: A Rare Intradural Extramedullary Tumour

Synovial sarcoma (SS) accounts for 5- 10% of all adult soft-tissue sarcomas and only 5% arises in the spine. It presents like any other spinal tumor, namely axial pain with symptoms due to neural compression. Imaging findings can also be similar to any other benign spinal tumor. We present a 43-year-old male who presented with symptoms of radiculopathy and neural compression and imaging revealed a dumbbell tumor at C6 to D1 with transforaminal and paraspinal extension on the right side. After surgical excision the histopathology revealed a rare synovial sarcoma of the spine. Synovial sarcoma of the spine though rare, are difficult to differentiate based on their presentation and imaging characteristics from benign spinal tumors. However, subtle findings on imaging and a pre-operative biopsy may aid in performing a more definitive surgery upfront rather than a re-do surgery after the histopathological diagnosis.

Successful surgical removal ofa posterior mediastinal dumbbell tumourat Viet Tiep hospital: A case report

Background: Mediastinal dumbbell tumor occurs infrequently, 10% of posterior mediastinal tumourswill develop intodumbbell tumours.Complete tumorectomy is difficult and requires multi-disciplinary approach: neurosurgery and thoracic surgery.Clinical signs arescarce, diagnosis is mainly based on chest Computerised Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan. Clinical case: A43-year-old male patient was diagnosed with dumbbell tumoursonchest CT and MRI scan. We successfully removed the thoracic tumour by endoscopy in combination with paravertebralincision.

Dumbbell Nerve Sheath Tumors

A dumbbell tumor is a nerve sheath tumor that arises from a spinal nerve in the neural foramen and grows as a dumbbell-shaped mass. The differential diagnosis for a dumbbell tumor includes schwannoma, neurofibroma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, and metastases, among others. MR imaging is considered the gold-standard imaging modality for diagnosis of dumbbell tumors. Surgical approaches that are tailored to the individual patient’s case can be utilized. The chapter reviews dumbbell tumors, including a case example and covers the incidence, clinical presentation, imaging features, decision-making strategy, surgical approaches, outcomes, and potential complications associated with their management.