ABSTRACT
Objective: This study sought to identify
the prevalence of operations for spinal epidural neoplastic metastases relative
to other spine and neurosurgical operative procedures. Methods: This study was
descriptive and involved a retrospective review of data collected from patients
who underwent neurosurgeries between February 1997 and January 2015 at a single
quaternary hospital. The examined population was distributed across five
descriptive categories to perform numerical distributions among neurosurgical
operative procedures. Results: A total of 12,802 neurosurgical procedures were
identified. These procedures were classified as follows: Skull and brain,
11,192 (87.42%); spinal column and spinal nervous tissue, 1462 (11.42%); and
peripheral nerves, 148 (1.16%). Surgical procedures for the 1462 (100%) cases
of spinal column and spinal nervous tissue diseases were distributed by
nosology as follows: Degenerative intervertebral disk and spondylosis, 768
(52.54%); neoplastic, 279 (19.08%); traumatic, 221 (15.11%); congenital, 163
(11.14%); infectious and inflammatory, 27 (1.85%); and vascular, 4 (0.28%).
With respect to the distribution of the 279 (100%) surgical procedures for
spinal column and spinal nervous tissue neoplastic diseases, 124 (44.44%)
procedures were for intradural neoplasms, and 155 (55.56%) procedures were for
epidural spinal column neoplasms. The 155 (100%) operations for epidural
neoplastic diseases were distributed into two groups: Primary epidural
neoplasms, 42 (27.10%); and secondary epidural neoplasms, 113 (72.90%). Spinal
column epidural neoplastic metastases (secondary neoplasms) represented 0.88%
of the 12,802 neurosurgical procedures. Conclusions: Surgical procedures for
spinal metastasis are uncommon with respect to all neurosurgical operative
procedures. Trend analysis reveals an unchanging trend of prevalence for these
procedures.