Cervical Hemilaminoplasty with Miniplates in Long Segment Intradural Extramedullary Ependymoma: Case Report and Technical Note

The surgical approaches for spinal tumors, to a great extent, have been developed in accordance with the developments in medical technology. Today, many surgical techniques are implemented as anterior, anterolateral, posterior, posterolateral and combined approaches. Due to its low morbidity, the posterior approach is the more preferred one. Laminectomy is a widely used technique, especially in neoplastic lesions. However, following laminectomy, there are numerous complications such as instability, kyphotic deformity and scar formation. In this paper, the excision of a tumor that was located intradural-extramedullary at the C3-C7 level with the cervical hemilaminoplasty technique is described. A 47-year-old female patient presented to our clinic with increasing complaints of neck and left arm pain, left arm numbness and searing pain for the last 10 years. On examination, hypoesthesia at the C4-7 dermatomes in the left upper extremity, an increase in deep tendon reflexes, and bilateral positive Hoffmann reflexes were observed. C3-C7 laminae were opened unilaterally on the right side with a midline skin incision. The laminae were drilled with a high-speed drill to provide a wide opening, both on the midline obliquely and from the border of the lamina-facet joint. After the tumor was totally excised, hemilaminae were placed into the previous position and reconstructed with mini-plates and screws. Cervical hemilaminoplasty provides a wide field of vision in tumor surgery of this region. Besides, the reconstruction of hemilaminae is important for stability. As the integrity of the spinal canal is preserved during reoperations of this region, the risk of complications is decreased