intradural extramedullary spinal cord, tumor schwannoma, meningeoma, diagnostics, surgical treatment, surgical outcomes

Intradural extramedullary spinal cord tumors represent a relatively small group among all of the tumors of the CNS. This article describes the most frequent types of these tumors, their etiology, macroscopic and histologic characteristics, clinical symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. It describes the clinical outcome of several surgery techniques and their effect on the stability of the spine, the radicality of the resection and the neurological outcome of the patient. It analyses the importance of pre-operative preparation, plan ning, the position of the patient during surgery, perioperative medicamentous treatment and the use of instrumentation opportunities. It evaluates their impact on postoperative outcome, the eventual complications and the over all prognosis of the patient. These aspects are particularly evaluated in the most frequent types of intradural extramedullary spinal cord tumors which are nerve sheath tumors and meningeomas. There is also a brief description devoted to less frequent tumors in this article. There are simple and concise recommendations on the diagnostics and therapy of intradural extramedullary spinal cord tumors in the discussion and the conclusion parts, and these recommendations are aimed at the improvement of the treatment effect and minimizing the risk of complications in accordance with available studies.