Lumbosacral intraspinal lipomas associated or not with a tethered cord syndrome (series of 8 cases)

The authors report a surgical experience on eight case of intra spinal lipomas. These lumbo-sacral malformations belong to post-neurulation defect, in such conditions spinal cord undergoes tethering while child growing that lead to a slow neurological disturbance. Through this study, authors show that female is more involved than male (5/3. On 6 cases the diagnosis have been made before the age of 2 years old. Three groups of signs characterize dramatically intra spinal lipomas: skin-median lumbo-sacral stigmata (8 cases) such as hypertrichosis, nevi etc. neuro-orthopedic disturbance(3 cases): club foot, paraparesis. sphincter disturbance: vesical or anal incontinence. In the lack of C.T. scan and M.R.I. contrast medium myelography confirm the diagnosis. Surgical excision lead to characterization of 4 extra dural lipomas, one sub dural, and 3 mixed lipomas. 75% of the patient improved well. One dealing with this kind of pathology must avoid the misdiagnosis of enuresis.