Intramedullary spinal cord meningioma in a Boxer: a case report

Meningiomas are the most common primary tumours of the canine central nervous system. The incidence of these tumours increases with age and they are more frequently encountered in dogs older than seven years. Meningiomas are solitary, well-defined neoplasias that more commonly grow via compression and less commonly by infiltrating the nervous tissue. Meningiomas exhibit 82% intracranial, 15% intraspinal and 3% retrobulbar location. Meningiomas of the spinal cord are mostly benign in character with intradural-extramedullary location in the cervical segments. The case reported here consisted of a 10-year old male Boxer presenting with a complaint of inability to use its left foreleg. In the neurological examination, upper motor neuron findings were recorded and direct radiography, myelography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the cervical region were performed. Interpretation of the transversal, coronal and sagittal cross-section magnetic resonance images taken of T1-weighted, T2-weighted and T1-weighted with contrast sequences, revealed a well-defined intramedullary mass at the level of the C5-C6 vertebra. Histopathological examination of the neoplastic mass revealed it to be a transitional (mixed) meningioma which had infiltrated into the spinal cord.