[Spinal tumors in infancy. A report of 48 cases].

Introduction: Spinal tumours in infancy are an infrequent oncological disorder. The clinical features, usually of insidious onset, are alterations in gait and a painful spine.
Objective: To analyze the different histological types of spinal tumours seen in infancy and their form of presentation in our series.
Patients and Methods: We reviewed the clinical histories of 48 patients with intraspinal tumours, aged under 15 years, whose reports of histological diagnosis had been sent to our centre.
Results: Of the patients studied, 17 were girls (35.4%) and 31 boys (64.6%) with an average age of 7.7 years. The histological diagnoses made most frequently were astrocytomas (22.9%) and lipomas (18.8%) followed by metastases (12.5%), ependymomas (8.3%) and Edwing's sarcoma (8.3%). The clinical features were present prior to diagnosis for between 1 and 6 months in 13 patients, and for less than one month in 9 patients. The presenting symptoms were alterations in gait and back pain in most patients. Exploratory tests were related to the involvement of long vias and second motor-neurone lesions. The main topographical findings were: in the axial plane the lesions were extradural (23 patients) and in the sagittal plane there was dorsal involvement (34 patients).
Conclusions: Insidious, progressive alterations in gait together with continuous, nocturnal back pain are valuable data when a serious spinal disorder is to be suspected. Early diagnosis should be based on neuroimaging tests, essentially MR, in the patients in whom spinal cord involvement is considered.