Extramedullary plasmacytomas originating in the spinal cord are extremely rare lesions.
We report a 52-year-old man presenting with progressive tetraparesis. Spinal magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) showed an ill-defined contrast-enhancing intramedullary mass
at the C5-6 level. After a biopsy was taken, pathology including immunohistochemistry
revealed plasmacytoma. Complete workup for multiple myeloma was negative. The patient
was treated with intravenous chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy and corticosteroids
without any improvement of the clinical symptoms or decreased tumor size on the follow-up
MRIs. The most common spinal manifestation of plasmocytoma is involvement of the vertebral
bodies leading to extradural compression of the cord. Only rarely plasmocytoma manifests
itself as a primarily dural lesion leading to an intradural cord compression. This
report describes the extremely rare manifestation of plasmocytoma of the spinal cord
itself that therefore should be considered in the differential diagnosis of spinal
cord mass lesions.
Keywords
spinal cord - intramedullary tumor - extramedullary plasmacytoma
