MR features of posterior spinal epidural cavernous hemangioma: A case report

Cavernous hemangiomas may affect the central nervous system, usually asymptomatic and involving the cerebral hemispheres but it may become symptomatic when bleeds or occurs in the brain stem. Purely spinal epidural cavernous hemangioma is a rare benign tumor composed of sinusoid vascular channels. The differential diagnosis of epidural cavernous hemangioma on MR image includes neurogenic tumors, meningiomas, lymphomas, spinal angiolipoma, and metastasis. We report a case of 81-year-old man presented with progressive numbness and weakness of both lower limbs for one year. MR imaging revealed an infiltrative enhancing epidural tumor at the dorsum of T2 to T5 levels with foraminal extension. The MR image features along with their differential diagnoses are discussed and literature would be reviewed.