Blood Vessel Tumor of the Spinal Cord in a Boy Aged Nine Years

Blood vessel tumors and varices of the spinal cord are rare. Globus and Doshay1in their comprehensive review of the subject in 1929 were able to collect only fifty-eight cases from the literature, which include three distinct pathologic entities. There have been reports of five new cases since that time, making a total of sixty-three cases. Of the total number, about 10 per cent were purely arterial or presented an arterial component. The remaining 90 per cent were composed of about equal numbers of true neoplastic hemangiomas and of venous dilatations; the latter are not neoplastic formations but have been included in all reviews of the subject, presumably because of the similarity of the clinical syndrome. Guillain2reports one other instance in which both conditions were found. In most cases the lesion has not been fully exposed at operation and the suspicion may be entertained that in at