Fusion after intradural spine tumor resection in adults: A review of evidence and practices

• Spinal deformity after surgery for intradural spinal cord tumors is relatively common.
• We reviewed the literature for fusion criteria after removing intradural spine tumors.
• We propose a decision algorithm to consider the use of fixation in adult patients based on the literature.

There is ample evidence supporting concomitant fusion after intradural spinal tumor resection in select pediatric patients. Unfortunately, the data are scarcer in adults. The objective of this work is to review the published literature and analyze practice patterns for stabilization and fusion after intradural tumor resection in adults. We performed a literature review via PubMed for information available regarding fusion in adults with intradural spine tumors. Additionally, we manually searched the references of selected articles to add relevant articles. Finally, we retrieved the criteria for fusion (if any) in the selected studies. A total of 639 articles were found and 35 were finally selected for analysis. Of those, three were literature reviews and 32 were retrospective case series. There were a total of 1288 patients on the series with 104 of them requiring fusion (8.1%). The median follow up of all the series was 24 months (range 1.5–180).The criteria for fusion that were common in most cases series were: previous deformity (i.e. kyphosis in the cervical spine), 3 or more levels of laminectomy, laminectomy encompassing a spinal junction, “young adults” (33 ± 4.2 years), facetectomy ≥ 50% (unilateral or bilateral), persistence of deformity after 1 year of the surgery and, C2 laminectomy. There appears to be some consistent practices for fusion after intradural tumor resection in adults, but this is based on retrospective analyses of case series. Prospective or randomized trials will likely provide more evidence based support for this practice.