Malignant Pheochromocytoma With Paroxysmal Hypertension and Metastasis to the Cervical Spine

Malignant pheochromocytomas that have produced the clinical picture consequent to the liberation of large amounts of epinephrine into the blood stream have not been previously reported. A total of 8 cases of malignant pheochromocytoma have been reported in the medical literature.1Paroxysmal hypertension was not a feature of the disease in any of these cases. The case reported herein is considered of interest because of the severe and frequent attacks of paroxysmal hypertension produced by the primary tumor and the complete freedom from these attacks following the surgical removal of the tumor. REPORT OF CASE R. S. L., a white man aged 47, was admitted to the hospital with weakness of the right arm, inability to move the legs and loss of bladder and bowel control. The illness was of two months' duration. Past History.— He was well until 1942, when he began to have attacks of headache,