Observation:
A 51-years-old male with no pathological background presented after the onset of a sudden numbness in his lower extremities associated to urogenital disorders. Physical examination revealed a cauda equine syndrome. Deep-tendon reflexes were abolished in both lower limbs with bilateral foot dorsiflexion weakness (2/5). Hypoesthesia of the lower left extremity as well as saddle anaesthesia was also found. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine was performed. It showed an intradural well-circumscribed mass extended from L1 to L3. The mass was isointense on T1 weighted images, hyper intense on T2 weighted images with homogenous enhancement after Gadolinium injection (figure 1). Urgent lumbar laminectomy and total resection of a highly vascularized haemorrhagic intradural tumour was performed (Figure 2). No tight adherence were noticed with nerve roots, and tumour resection was macroscopically complete. Pathologic examination of the specimen (Figure 3) concluded to a paraganglioma. The patient had a good postoperative recovery as well as an improvement of neurological signs. A 2 years follow up did not show neither clinical nor radiological signs of recurrence.