Relative Frequency of Spinal Cord Tumors in Neurosurgery Ward of Poursina Hospital, Rasht (2002-2007)

Despite relative low incidence of spinal cord tumors, they have significant importance as a result of their critical location and being potential for spinal cord compression. Also a large group of these tumors would be completely curable if be diagnosed on time and treated well. The aim of this study was assessment of spine and spinal cord tumors relative frequency in neurosurgery ward of Poursina Hospital in Rasht from 2002 to 2008. In a descriptive study, we studied medical documents of admitted patients in neurosurgery ward of Poursina Hospital in Rasht whom suffered from spine or spinal cord tumor. We collected necessary data including age, sex, tumor's type, involveded segment and location of tumor related to dura and analysed them with SPSS 14 software. Out of 55 studied patients, 28 (50.9%) were male and 27 (49.1%) female. The youngest patient was 4 and the oldest one was 74 years old. Mean age was 46.22 years of age. Fifth decade of life was the most frequent decade with 13 cases (23.6%). Extradural tumors with 22 cases (40%) were the most common types of tumors. Then, 21 cases (38.2%) had intradural extramedullary tumors and 12 cases (21.8%) intramedullary. Moreover, 27 tumors (49.1%) were in thoracic segment of spine. Cervical, lumbar and sacrococcigeal region of spine had 14, 13 and 1 tumors, respectively. According to the study Schwannoma was the most common type of tumor with 11 cases (20%) followed by meningioma and small round cell tumors with 8 cases (14.5%). Although most results of this study are relatively similar to previous ones, there are several differences among some parameters such as the most frequent decade and the most involved segment of spine in intramedullary tumors. Many of spinal tumors versus brain tumors with timely diagnosis and prompt treatment will have good prognosis, therefore obtaining knowledge about epidemiology of these tumors and applying them in differential diagnosis are of high importance.