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Metastatic thymoma presenting as spontaneous epidural lumbar haematoma

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Abstract

We report the case of a 44-year-old man who was found to have metastatic thymoma to his lumbar spine presenting as a spontaneous epidural haematoma. The man presented with back pain and cauda equina like symptoms in the absence of trauma, antiplatelet or anticoagulant agents. Following a laminectomy and excision of the epidural collection he made a full neurological recovery. Histopathology of the haematoma demonstrated metastatic thymoma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such case of metastatic thymoma to the lumbar spine presenting as a spontaneous epidural collection. We believe, in all patients with spontaneous spinal epidural haematoma and a background of malignancy, histopathological analysis should be sought.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Tamadur Mahasneh, for advice regarding appropriate histopathology slides for inclusion in the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

No funding was received, and there are no conflicts of interest to report.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Liverpool Hospital, Level 5, New Clinical Building, Liverpool, NSW, 2170, Australia

    Ganeshwaran Shivapathasundram, Vanessa Sammons & Renata Bazina

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  1. Ganeshwaran Shivapathasundram
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  2. Vanessa Sammons
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  3. Renata Bazina
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Correspondence to Ganeshwaran Shivapathasundram.

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Shivapathasundram, G., Sammons, V. & Bazina, R. Metastatic thymoma presenting as spontaneous epidural lumbar haematoma. Eur Spine J 25 (Suppl 1), 33–37 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-015-4043-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-015-4043-6

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