Intramedullary ancient schwannoma of the cervical spinal cord: case report and review of literature.

We report a rare case of intramedullary ancient schwannoma of cervical spinal cord in a 68 year old patient. About 49 cases of intramedullary schwannomas and neurofibromas have been reported in the literature but to our knowledge there is no report of the 'ancient' variety of intramedullary schwannoma. The cell of origin of these tumours is the schwann cell, which normally does not exist in the parenchyma of the central nervous system. Many theories have been advanced to explain this paradox. According to one theory, these tumours arise from the perivascular nerve plexus of the pial vessels. This plexus was found mostly to exist along the branches of the anterior spinal artery. In our case, the tumour was supplied by two branches of the anterior spinal artery, which may add further support to the above theory. Copyright 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.