Metastatic Meningioma in the Sacrum: a Case Report

Study Design: This report describes a 51-year-old woman with a sacral metastatic meningioma that originated from an intracranial meningioma.

Objectives: To describe an unusual presentation of a metastatic meningioma in the sacrum.

Summary Of Background Data: Extracranial metastases of meningioma are very rare. The phenomenon of metastasis may have more to do with the ability to invade the wall of a blood vessel than with the mitotic activity of a tumor. Therefore, metastases of the meningioma can occur even with a benign histologic picture in the original intracranial meningioma.

Methods: A 51-year-old woman had experienced low back pain and sciatica of the left leg for several months. Plain radiographs of the lumbosacral spine showed an osteolytic lesion with an irregular margin that occupied the left side of the sacrum. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a soft mass invading the left sacrum, ilium, and presacral space.

Results: Surgical removal of the sacral tumor via an anterior-posterior-anterior approach was done. Histopathologic examination revealed a metastatic meningioma with a meningotheliomatous histologic composition. Sixteen months after excision of the metastatic sacral lesion, the patient was ambulating freely and experiencing mild constipation and urine retention.

Conclusions: In this case of metastatic meningioma in the sacrum, which is the first such report to the authors' best knowledge, total excision of the tumor was successful.