Clinical Findings and Results of Surgical Resection in 19 Cases of Spinal Osteoid Osteoma

STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive cases series. PURPOSE: To evaluate clinical findings and results of conventional surgery in patients with spinal osteoid osteoma (OO). OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: OO is a rare benign tumor with spinal involvement rate of about 10%-20%. METHODS: This descriptive study was conducted on 19 patients (11 males and 8 females with an average age of 19.8 years) with documented histopathological and imaging findings of OO referred to a university hospital. Neurologic symptoms and pain were scored before and after the open surgical excision. Data were analyzed by SPSS ver. 16 software using chi-square and significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The most common complaint was back or neck pain (84.2%) and in 68.4% spinal deformity (mostly scoliosis) shown with an average cobb angle of 21° at presentation. The sites of involvement were 35% in the lumbar, 35% in the thoracic, 25% in the cervical, and 5% in the sacrum. Lamina was the most common site (50%) of involvement with predilection for the right side (p=0.001). All patients were treated by conventional surgical excision with a complete recovery of pain and deformity. No recurrence occurred after a mean follow up of 44.5 months, but 4 of 19 cases instrumented because of induced instability. In one case there were two levels of involvement (C7-T1) simultaneously. Interestingly, 10 out of 19 of our cases belonged to a specific race (Bakhtiari). CONCLUSIONS: Surgical intra-lesional curettage is potentially an effective method without any recurrence, which can lead to spontaneous scoliosis recovery and pain relief. Race may be a potential risk factor for spinal (OO).