Abstract
It is difficult to find spinal tumor of thoracic spine early in patients of advanced age because of the masking effects of lumbar canal stenosis and cervical myelopathy. We report 2 cases recently diagnosed during treatment of other part of spinal cord. The first patient was 87-year-old woman who had been treated lumbar canal stenosis and gonarthrosis for a long time. She was referred to our hospital for motor disturbance of both lower extremities. MRI showed a thoracic spine tumor. She underwent operation. The second patient was a 73-year-old woman. She underwent laminoplasty of the cervical spine for numbness of her left arm. She was treated for cervial myelopathy and lumbar canal stenosis in another hospital, but symptoms worsened and she was to our hospital. We gave conservative treatment, but symptoms continued to worsen. MRI of cervical spine showed a thoracic spine tumor. She underwent operation.
