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Case Reports
. 2014 Sep 18:8:311.
doi: 10.1186/1752-1947-8-311.

Gossypiboma 19 years after laminectomy mimicking a malignant spinal tumour: a case report

Takashi Kobayashi  1 , Naohisa Miyakoshi, Eiji Abe, Toshiki Abe, Tetsuya Suzuki, Masato Takahashi, Yoichi Shimada
Affiliations
Case Reports

Gossypiboma 19 years after laminectomy mimicking a malignant spinal tumour: a case report

Takashi Kobayashi et al. J Med Case Rep. .

Abstract

Introduction: Gossypiboma is rare and mostly asymptomatic in chronic cases. It can be confused with other soft tissue masses.

Case presentation: Our patient was an 87-year-old Japanese man with a history of surgery for a lumbar lesion causing lumbar canal stenosis 19 years earlier. Computed tomography showed a soft tissue mass with osteolysis and periosteal thickening of the vertebral lamina. On magnetic resonance imaging, the mass showed heterogeneous signal intensity on T2-weighted imaging, suggesting a malignancy. At the time of biopsy, small pieces of retained surgical sponge were collected. Surgical treatment was performed to excise the soft tissue tumour.

Conclusions: Gossypiboma should be included in the differential diagnosis of soft tissue masses in the paraspinal region in patients with a history of previous spinal surgery.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Magnetic resonance imaging sagittal and axial images. A soft tissue mass (open arrow) at the L3 to 4 level is hypointense compared with the spinal cord on the T1-weighted image (a, c), and heterogeneous signal intensity is seen on the T2-weighted image (b, d).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Computed tomography axial image. A mass (open arrow) is seen posterior to the lamina with osteolytic change.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Macroscopic appearance of the retained sponge material at biopsy.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Histological findings. A fresh foreign body reaction around the gauze fibre (arrow, a) and fibrin deposition (open arrow), which indicates an old foreign body reaction (b) are seen (hematoxylin and eosin ×20).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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