Symptomatic vertebral hemangiomas- results of treatment with radiotherapy

Objectives: Vertebral hemangiomas are benign vascular lesions occurring in spine. Though vertebral hemangiomas are frequently seen, they are rarely symptomatic. Pain is the commonest symptom. There is no agreement on single treatment modality for symptomatic lesions. Surgery, intralesional injection of absolute alcohol, methyl methacrylate injection are few methods used to treat them. Radiotherapy has been shown effective in many studies in terms of pain relief and at times in cord compression too. Results of radiotherapy in symptomatic vertebral hemangiomas treated in our centre are analyzed. Materials and methods: Six patients with symptomatic vertebral hemanglomas were treated with external radiotherapy to a dose of 36-40 Gy. Four patients had only pain as their symptom. Two patients had additional neurological deficits with paraperesis at presentation. Result in terms of pain relief was assessed at the end of RT and during follow up. Median follow up was four and half months. Results: Out of six patients, pain relief was seen in four patients who had only pain as their symptom. There was neither pain relief nor improvement in neurological deficits in remaining two patients. Conclusion: Radiotherapy is an effective and simple modality of treatment for symptomatic vertebral hemangiomas where pain is the main symptom without neurological deficits. It is non invasive and safe.