[Precocious puberty secondary to an intramedullary germinoma].

BACKGROUND: hCG secreting tumors are responsible for 21% of precocious puberties in boys. Usual localizations are hepatic, cerebral, mediastinal and gonadic. CASE REPORT: A 4-year-old boy developed precocious puberty with rapid evolution. Serum beta hCG suggested germinal etiology, but radiological procedures failed to find any usual localization. Further occurrence of pain in the legs led to carry out a lumbar puncture. The high cerebrospinal fluid/blood gradient of beta hCG suggested the presence of an intramedullar tumor. Medullar magnetic resonance imaging found a large tumor facing L1 and L2.
CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this localization is described for only the second time.