What’s going on with two neurofibromas in the spinal canal at the same time?

Mr. Wei, who is 23 years old, developed low back pain 1 year ago, especially when bending over, the pain was more obvious, and two tumors in the lumbar spinal canal at the level of the second and fourth segments had been detected by MRI, but were not treated. However, in the last two months, his lumbar pain became more severe and he also developed pain in his thighs. Mr. Wei came to the hospital again. After going through an MRI lineup of the entire central nervous system and confirming that there were no other tumors in the brain or other parts of the spinal canal except for these two, Mr. Wei underwent microdissection of the tumors. Fortunately, Mr. Wei’s two tumors were in close proximity to each other, and both tumors were removed at once through a single incision. The pathology after Mr. Wei’s tumor removal confirmed that both tumors were nerve sheath tumors, and he was discharged from the hospital soon after his recovery. Nerve sheath tumor is a common benign tumor that can occur intracranially, within the spinal canal and peripherally. However, usually nerve sheath tumors are single and in rare cases multiple, and the multiple nerve sheath tumors are a form of neurofibromatosis. Neurofibromatosis is divided into several subtypes because of the genetic mutations that cause the disease and the different clinical manifestations. The more common neurofibromatosis type 1, which is manifested by milky café-au-lait spots on the skin, multiple neurofibromas, gliomas of the optic nerve, and iris malformations, accounts for the vast majority of neurofibromatosis. Neurofibromatosis type 2, on the other hand, manifests bilateral vestibular nerve sheath tumors within the skull, which are relatively rare. Multiple nerve sheath tumors of other sites, another subtype of neurofibromatosis, are much less prevalent in the population. Multiple nerve sheath tumors have multiple tumors, but all are of the pathologic type of nerve sheath tumor. In terms of how the tumors are inherited, multiple nerve sheath tumors tend to be disseminated, with only a small percentage being due to inheritance through the family. Familial multiple nerve sheath tumors typically have a family history and are inherited in an autosomal dominant manner with a probability of inheritance of approximately 50%, while the probability of inheritance of disseminated multiple nerve sheath tumors is unclear. The most common symptom of multiple nerve sheath tumors is pain, which is mainly caused by the tumor compressing and irritating the nerves, and most of the pain can be effectively relieved after surgical removal of the tumor. Meanwhile, because nerve sheath tumor is a benign tumor, itself is not sensitive to radiation therapy and drug therapy, and surgical resection is able to remove most of them completely, so the main treatment means of multiple nerve sheath tumor is surgical resection. Although the tumor pathology of multiple nerve sheath tumors is generally benign and the results of surgical resection are relatively good, some patients with multiple nerve sheath tumors can have new tumors develop several years later. Therefore, after surgical resection of multiple nerve sheath tumors, it is more important to pay attention to regular review, on the one hand, it is necessary to observe whether the tumor recurs or not, on the other hand, it is also necessary to be alert to the emergence of new nerve sheath tumors.