Acceptance of Early Surgery for Treatment of Spinal Cord Cavernous Malformation in Contemporary Japan

OBJECTIVE: Spinal cord cavernous malformation (CM) is an intramedullary vascular lesion that may present with progressive symptoms. Surgery is recommended for symptomatic patients, but optimal timing of surgery is debatable. Some advocate waiting until plateau of neurological recovery and others support emergency surgery. There is no statistic on how commonly these strategies are utilized. We aimed to find contemporary practice pattern among neurosurgical spine centers in Japan. METHODS: A database of intramedullary spinal cord tumors assembled by Neurospinal Society of Japan was surveyed and 160 patients with spinal cord CM were identified. Neurological function, disease duration, and number of days between presentation to hospitals and surgery were analyzed. RESULTS: Duration of disease before presentation to hospitals ranged from 0 to 336 months (median, 4 months). Number of days between patients’ presentation and surgery ranged from 0 to 6,011 days (median, 32 days). Time from symptom onset to surgery ranged from 0 to 336.9 months (median, 6.6 months). Patients with severe preoperative neurological dysfunction had shorter duration of disease, fewer days between presentation and surgery, and shorter time between symptom onset and surgery. Patients with paraplegia or quadriplegia were more likely to improve when operated on within 3 months from onset. CONCLUSION: Timing of surgery for spinal cord CM in Japanese neurosurgical spine centers generally was early, with 50% of patients undergoing surgery within 32 days after presentation. Further study is needed to clarify optimal timing of surgery.