Description
The specimen is an ovoid, smooth-surfaced nodule, brownish in colour, showing no identifying
features. The history is of interest: when weight-lifting, the patient experienced a sudden pain in
the lower back; this improved with rest and he played rugby, the pain returned, radiating to the
back of each leg and later to the calves and ankles; a myelogram showed a complete block with a
rounded lower margin at the level of the second lumbar vertebra. At laminectomy this tumour
was found, distorting the cauda equina.