Primary spinal epidural non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in childhood: a review of 6 cases.

Abstract

We report a retrospective study regarding 6 children with primary epidural non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and analyse the factors influencing prognosis with emphasis on treatment. Four patients were females and 2 males. The neurological condition of patients was assessed pre- and postoperatively according to Shaw's classification for neurological disability. All patients were submitted to surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Histologically, the tumour proved to be a high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in all cases. At follow-up, all patients are alive after a median interval of 52 months (range 24-72 months). This study showed that the outcome of patients depends on the gravity of pre-operative deficits whereas the survival is influenced by the type of treatment.