Cervical spine giant cell bone tumor: a case report

BACKGROUND: Giant cell tumors (GCTs) of the bone are locally aggressive primary bone tumors with a benign character. Spinal involvement is rare and they are quite rare in the cervical spine. CASE PRESENTATION: A 31-year-old male patient presented with neck pain. Cervical CT revealed a lytic lesion extending posteriorly and causing the collapse of the C4 vertebra corpus. The patient underwent excision of the tumor extending from the anterior to the posterior with a single-stage anterior intervention followed by the placement of an anterior cage and plate-screw system for fusion. The pathology was reported as GCT. CONCLUSIONS: The posteriorly located lesion was widely curetted through an anterior approach in a single session.