Surgical management of an adult manifestation of Ewing sarcoma of the spine—a case report

Ewing sarcoma (ES) is a primary malignant bone tumor. Its occurrence in adults is uncommon. Even rarer is the occurrence in the spine. The prognosis of this tumor in adult patients is unfavorable. In this report, we present the case of a 56-year-old woman with ES localized at the upper thoracic spine, presented with acute incomplete paraplegia. The patient underwent emergency decompressive hemilaminectomy and tumor debulking surgery to decompress the spinal cord. As adjuvant therapy, she received radio-chemotherapy followed by en bloc resection via a combined dorsoventral approach. In the course of the disease, the patient showed a continuous neurological improvement from AISA B to E over the follow up period of 18 months. To date there has been no evidence of tumor recurrence. We report our experience in treating ES of the spine in an adult patient presenting with neurological deficits. We highlight the advantage of en bloc resection of the tumor after spinal stabilization to treat the local disease and alleviating the presenting symptoms.