Prevalence of primary spinal tumors: 15-year data from Siriraj Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To determine prevalence, demographic data and clinical presentation of primary vertebral tumors.

Material and method: A retrospective study of the primary spine tumor specimens from Siriraj bone tumor registry from 1996 to 2010.

Results: From the study, primary spinal tumors constituted 85 of 1,679 bone tumor cases (5.06%). The common benign spinal tumors were giant cell tumor and hemangioma. The common malignant spinal tumors were chordoma, chondrosarcoma, and osteosarcoma. The mean age ofpresentation was 44.68 years. Fifty-three percent of tumors occurred in females. Pain was the most common presenting symptom, occurring in 73.53% of malignant and 52.94% of benign tumors. Neurological involvement occurred in 25% of malignant tumor Malignant lesions predominated in the sacral region while the most common location ofbenign specimens was thoracic region.

Conclusion: The present study was the first demographic study ofprimary spinal tumor in Thai showed variety of prevalence when compared with similar studies based on Western patients. Whether these results reflect differences in the population, race and data collection method.