Intraosseous schwannomas involving the sacrum: Characteristic imaging findings and review of the literature

Background and purposeSacral intraosseous schwannomas represent a rare subset of schwannomas. The existing literature detailing the radiographic appearance of intraosseous schwannomas is limited. The aim of this study is to formally characterize the radiological appearance of sacral intraosseous schwannomas to differentiate them from other lytic lesions.Materials and methodsImaging studies of 13 pathologically proven intraosseous schwannomas were reviewed from multiple institutions by fellowship-trained radiologists. A PubMed search was performed and identified four papers pertaining to the imaging characteristics of sacral intraosseous schwannomas. The results of these papers were compared to findings from our cases.ResultsAll tumors had heterogeneous signals and were predominately solid but cystic components with fluid-fluid levels were present. The tumors caused a mass effect but none infiltrated the surrounding soft tissues. Post-contrast T1-weighted images revealed heterogeneous enhancement in all 13...