What is spinal vertebral hemangioma?

Vertebral hemangioma is a common benign tumor of the spine, which is precisely caused by a disorder of vascular growth in the vertebral body. It is a tumor-like proliferation of blood vessels and vascular components in the bone because it consists of irregular vascular cavities surrounded by flattened epithelial cells from a pathological point of view. The prevalence of vertebral hemangioma is 40-50 years old, mostly in the thoracic spine, and the lesions mostly involve the vertebral body; most of them are solitary, a few are multiple, and the lesions are less than 25 px in diameter. x-ray and CT films show typical fenestrated, lattice-like changes with reduced bone trabeculae, and high signal on MRI with T1W1 and T2W2 images. Although vertebral hemangiomas have a high incidence on imaging, up to 27% according to the literature, only 1% of patients have clinical symptoms. Due to the distending growth of the tumor within the vertebral body and the destruction of the surrounding bone, patients may present with local pain-based clinical symptoms, and some patients may even present with symptoms of vertebral compression fracture and neurological damage. When a patient is diagnosed with vertebral hemangioma and develops the appropriate clinical symptoms, further treatment is required. There are several clinical treatments for vertebral hemangioma: radiotherapy, vascular embolization, ethanol injection, open surgery, and percutaneous vertebroplasty. Radiation therapy kills the diseased tissues through high concentrated energy of radiation and has been effective for some types of hemangiomas, but there are many limitations in clinical use due to the difficulty of operation, slow onset of effect, complications and inability to accurately determine whether the patient is sensitive to radiation therapy before surgery. The use of anhydrous ethanol and vascular embolization to treat vertebral hemangiomas also has problems such as the occurrence of vertebral compression fractures and easy recurrence. Open surgery requires large incisions, stripping of muscles and soft tissues, causing greater damage to the overall stability of the vertebral body and more complications, and is currently only indicated for cases with significant neurological symptoms. Since 1984, when French surgeon Galibert first used percutaneous injection of bone cement made of polymethylmethacrylate to treat pain caused by bone destruction in cervical 2 vertebral hemangioma and achieved good clinical results, percutaneous vertebroplasty technique has become the main way to treat vertebral hemangioma with intact posterior wall and no neurological symptoms, which has the advantages of minimally invasive, less bleeding and precise efficacy. The preoperative imaging data is read in detail to clarify the location of the tumor within the vertebral body, and the intraoperative targeted puncture is achieved by controlling the angle and direction of the puncture needle to accurately inject the bone cement into the tumor location. After vertebral hemangioma is treated by vertebroplasty, not only can local pain be reduced or even relieved, but also the vertebral body can be effectively prevented from pathological fracture after enhancement by bone cement. In addition, the toxic effect of the bone cement itself and the high temperature generated by the polymerization reaction after injection can effectively kill the tumor cells and thus prevent the recurrence of tumor. The patient, a 63-year-old female, was admitted to the hospital with pain and soreness in her lower back for six months. The preoperative X-ray and CT showed fenestrated bone destruction in the right anterior part of the T12 vertebral body, with sparse trabeculae and intact bone cortex. After admission, the diagnosis was: thoracic 12 vertebral body hemangioma. After admission, PKP of the thoracic 12 vertebral body was arranged, and the patient’s back pain disappeared after surgery. Postoperative X-ray and CT film suggested that the tumor lesion was completely filled with bone cement.