Pathology of Spinal Vascular Malformations and Vascular Tumors

While vascular malformations of the brain have been well-known for many years, similar disorders of the spinal cord have been largely disregarded, and there has been no uniformity of opinion concerning the nature and origin of these rather uncommon lesions. Although recent refinements in neuroradiology and neurosurgery have focussed attention on spinal vascular anomalies and have encouraged a rational surgical approach to their treatment, there is still limited understanding of the functional morphology, origin, and pathology of spinal angiomas and the pathogenesis of associated lesions which are closely related to the natural history of these malformations. The essential distinction between vascular (angiomatous) malformations and vascular tumors dating from the study by Cushing and Bailey (1918) is now generally agreed upon, although the relationship of the two groups is still less than completely clear. Recent comprehensive reviews on spinal angiomas were given by Djindjian et al. (1969) and Aminoff (1976), while spinal hemangioblastomas were reviewed by Hurth et al. (1975), and Browne et al. (1976).