Spinal cord tumor

A 50-year-old woman reported several years of progressive lower back pain in the supine position. Results of the neurologic examination were nor-mal. MRI of the lumbar spine was performed (fig-ure). After surgery, which revealed an intraspinal intradural schwannoma, the patient had no neuro-logic complaints. Schwannoma of the cauda equina usually develops at the L1–L2 level and causes back pain, sometimes limited to the supine position.1 MRI can distinguish this entity from disc herniation, which is sometimes a pitfall in the diagnosis.