Unusual causes of spinal foraminal widening.

Spinal neural foraminal widening is usually caused by benign lesions, most commonly neurofibromas. Rare lesions can also cause spinal neural foraminal widening. Computed tomography and/or MRI are the modalities of choice for studying the spinal foraminal widening. The present pictorial review describes six rare lesions, namely a lateral thoracic meningocele, a malignant fibrous histiocytoma, a tuberculous abscess, an osteoblastoma, a chondrosarcoma and a malignant tumour of the lung which caused spinal neural foraminal widening.