Improvement in Quality of Life Following Surgical Resection of Benign Intradural Extramedullary Tumors: A Prospective Evaluation of Patient-Reported Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Historically, symptomatic, benign intradural extramedullary (IDEM) spine tumors have been managed with surgical resection. However, minimal robust data regarding patient-reported outcomes (PROs) following treatment of symptomatic lesions exists. Moreover, there are increasing reports of radiosurgical management of these lesions without robust health-related quality of life data.
OBJECTIVE: To prospectively analyze PROs among patients with benign IDEM spine tumors undergoing surgical resection to define the symptomatic efficacy of surgery.
METHODS: Prospective, single-center observational cohort study of patients with benign IDEM spine tumors undergoing open surgical resection. Pre- and postoperative Brief Pain Index (BPI) and MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) questionnaires were used to quantitatively assess their symptom control after surgical intervention. Matched pairs were analyzed with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
RESULTS: A total of 57 patients met inclusion criteria with both pre- and postoperative PROs. There were 35 schwannomas, 18 meningiomas, 2 neurofibromas, 1 paraganglioma, and 1 mixed schwannoma/neurofibroma. Most patients were American Spinal Injury Association Impairment (ASIA) E (93%) with high-grade spinal cord compression (77%), and underwent either a 2 or 3 level laminectomy (84%). Surgical resection resulted in statistically significant improvement in all 3 composite BPI constructs of pain-severity, pain-interference, and overall patient pain experience (P < .0001). Surgical resection resulted in statistically significant improvements in all composite scores for the MDASI core symptom severity, spine tumor, and disease interference constructs (P < .01). Three patients (5%) had postoperative complications requiring surgical interventions (2 wound revisions and 1 ventriculo-peritoneal shunt).
CONCLUSION: Surgical resection of IDEM spine tumors provides rapid, significant, and durable improvement in PROs. © Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2021.