Minimally invasive resection of a glomus tumor of the thoracic spine: a case report and literature review

Objective: Spinal involvement of glomus tumors is extremely rare. We herein present a case of a spinal glomus tumor and reviewed the literature to identify the most effective surgical treatment of spinal glomus tumors.

Methods: A 48-year-old man presented with a huge paravertebral space-occupying lesion. In this report, we present the diagnostic process and surgical procedure in this case and review the literature of glomus tumors with spine involvement.

Results: We suspected a primary diagnosis of neurilemmoma based on the imaging results; however, the postoperative pathologic examination confirmed a glomus tumor. Considering the size of the tumor and involvement of surrounding areas, we performed complete tumor resection and unilateral fusion with pedicle screws at the T2 to T4 level. This unilateral approach with fixation was less invasive than the standard open posterior approaches that are used when one side of the spinal canal is intact without bony destruction.

Conclusions: Surgical resection is a suitable treatment for most symptomatic glomus tumors. For most glomus tumors with spine involvement, total tumor resection with suitable internal fixation and fusion is recommended.