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Abstract
Gorham's disease is a rare condition of unknown etiology that is characterized by progressive osteolysis. A 48 year-old woman had a burst fracture at T10, which was treated by pedicle screw instrumentation at another hospital. She was transferred due to progressive paraparesis, which was not observed initially. A n MRI demonstrated severe cord compression at the T10 level. Under the assumption that the patient had a highly vascular metastatic tumor, an anterior decompression with instrumentation was performed. However, neurologic symptoms and bone destruction worsened after six weeks postoperatively. A repeat decompression was performed through the posterior route and long- level pedicle screw instrumentation was applied. A fter the second operation, Gorham's disease was confirmed histologically. Care must be taken not to overlook a pathologic fracture caused by a spinal tumor as a simple fracture, especially an osteoporotic one.
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Fig. 2.
Preoperative MRI. (A) Sagittal T2-weighted image showing heterogeneous high signal intensities in T10 (B) Sagittal T1-weighted image showing low signal intensities in T10 vertebral body with spinal cord compression.
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