Surgical treatment of aggressive vertebral hemangioma causing progressive paraparesis

Vertebral hemangioma is a benign vascular lesion that may onset with neurologic symptoms due to spinal cord compression by epidural extension. Surgical procedure, embolization and radiotherapy are the gold standard for the treatment of this disease. We present a case of a 84 years old woman admitted at our department with worsening paraparesis and urinary retention. Her magnetic resonance images (MRI) showed a lesion involving both anterior and posterior vertebral element of D5, with extension into epidural space and spinal cord compression. The patient was operated for laminectomy and epidural lesion removal. Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of cavernous hemangioma.