CASE REPORT Primary spinal epidural rhabdomyosarcoma: a case report and review of the literature

Background Primary intraspinal sarcomas are very rare in children. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly aggressive and rapidly growing sarcoma with skeletal origin that occa-sionally appears in the spinal epidural space. Method We report a 13-year-old girl who presented with back pain, progressive paraparesis, and urinary retention. She had muscular weakness in her lower extremities and absent deep tendon reflex. An epidural dumbbell-shape mass at T11–T12 level was observed on MRI. The patient underwent T12 hemilaminectomy, partial T11 hemilaminec-tomy, and right facetectomy. A large, firm, dark-red vascular epidural tumor was found compressing the cord. The tumor which extended to intracanal and foraminal parts was re-moved completely. Discussion Histopathological examination revealed undif-ferentiated small round and oval tumoral cells. Immunohis-tochemical staining was positive for vimentin, desmin, and myogenin. The final diagnosis was alveolar RMS. She re-ceived radiotherapy and chemotherapy by vincristine, actinomycin-D, doxorubicin, and ifosfamide. The patient was in good condition with no tumor recurrence or metas-tasis at the 1-year follow-up