Spinal Schwannoma in a Patient with Chronic Right Flank Pain Presenting at an Emergency Department |
Jin Hong Min, Hoon Kim, Suk Woo Lee, Min Seok Ha, Kyu Hong Han, Jung Soo Park |
Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea. cpr@chungbuk.ac.kr |
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ABSTRACT |
Many patients with flank pain present to an emergency department (ED). The differential diagnosis of flank pain is difficult, especially in the case of women. Spinal schwannoma (SS) is one of the most common intraduralextramedullary spinal tumors. SS can present as symmetrical pain in the back or pain that radiates to both the lower extremities, which is commonly observed in clinical practice. We report the case of a 47-year-old woman with pain in her right flank area that began 2 months before she presented to our ED. Abdominal contrast computed tomography was performed to identify an intra-abdominal cause for the pain. Incidentally, we found a schwannoma, a spinal cord tumor, at the 10th thoracic vertebrae level. The pain disappeared after the tumor was surgically resected. On the basis of our findings, we conclude that the pain in her right flank pain area was caused by the SS. |
Key words:
Flank pain, Spinal tumor, Spinal schwannoma |
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