A spinal cord lipoma is a benign tumor made up of normal fat lying within the otherwise normal spinal cord. These are rare lesions that affect males and females equally. Most commonly they are located within the thoracic spinal cord. They may be symptomatic and more commonly present in adulthood.
Patients come to attention with gradual evidence of spinal cord compression.
The lipoma is removed as other spinal cord tumors are removed. A laminectomy is performed to gain opening to the spinal cord. The goal of the procedure is important and is not the total removal of the fat but rather the substantial debulking of the lipoma and untethereing of the spinal cord. No other treatment method is recommended. This is associated with abnormal fat accumulation that starts at below the level of the skin and extends through a bony opening to the spinal cord.