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Koshimizu H, Nakashima H, Ando K, Kobayashi K, Nishimura Y, Machino M, Ito S, Kanbara S, Inoue T, Yamaguchi H, Segi N, Tomita H, Imagama S. Patient factors influencing a delay in diagnosis in pediatric spinal cord tumors. NAGOYA JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE 2022; 84:516-525. [PMID: 36237887 PMCID: PMC9529625 DOI: 10.18999/nagjms.84.3.516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 09/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The diagnosis of pediatric spinal cord tumor is frequently delayed due to the presence of non-specific symptoms. We investigated the factors influencing the delay between the first symptom presentation and the diagnosis for pediatric spinal cord tumor. We retrospectively analyzed 31 patients of age <20 years (18 men, 13 women) who underwent surgery for spinal cord tumor at a single center during 1998-2018. We extracted the relevant data on patients' symptoms, affected spinal location (cervical: C1-7, thoracic: T1-T12, and lumbosacral: L1-S), and tumor anatomical location (extradural, intradural extramedullary, and intramedullary tumor) that could potentially affect the duration of symptom presentation prior to the diagnosis. The most common symptom presented in the patients was pain (n = 22, 71.0 %). Motor symptoms such as paralysis was associated with early diagnosis (P = 0.039). The duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis was found to be significantly longer in patients with spinal tumor in the lumbar-sacral region than in those with the involvement of the cervical and thoracic regions (2.1 ± 1.7 months vs 13.6 ± 12.1 months; P = 0.006 and 2.9 ± 2.2 months vs 13.6 ± 12.1 months; P = 0.012, respectively). Our study results demonstrated that pain was the most common symptom in the examined patients, although it did not affect the delay in diagnosis, whereas the presentation of motor symptoms was helpful in the diagnosis of pediatric spinal cord tumor and the diagnosis could be delayed in lumbar-sacral spinal tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroyuki Koshimizu
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Hiroaki Nakashima
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Kei Ando
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Kazuyoshi Kobayashi
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Yusuke Nishimura
- Department of Neurosurgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Masaaki Machino
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Sadayuki Ito
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Shunsuke Kanbara
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Taro Inoue
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Hidetoshi Yamaguchi
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Naoki Segi
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Hiroyuki Tomita
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Shiro Imagama
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
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