Extradural lipoma causing spinal cord compression in a dog: a case report/Lipoma extradural causante de compresión medular en un perro: reporte de caso/Compressao medular causada por lipoma extradural em cao: relato de caso

The case of an extradural lipoma is described in a 10 year-old female Boxer with a history of chronic progressive ataxia for 6 months. Para-ataxia was evidenced on neurological examination along with negative and diminished conscious proprioception in the hind right leg and the hind left leg, respectively. The dog had absent bilateral patellar reflex and showed pain at palpation of the thoracolumbar spine. Radiographs did not evidence radiological signs of decreased intervertebral spaces. The myelography detected a ventral lifting of the spinal cord (from the spinal floor) at the level of T11-T12, T12-T13 and T13-L1. Hemilaminectomy was performed at T12-T13 and T13-L1, revealing a large amount of fat-like tissue. The tissue was diagnosed as a lipoma after being analyzed through histopathology and immunohistochemistry. The patient showed a slight improvement in walking without continue progress of para-ataxia both in the postoperative and reassessment 6 months later. This report discusses the case of a patient with an extradural lipoma in the thoracolumbar spine. This is the first report of an extradural lipoma affecting the thoracolumbar area in a dog. Additionally, this is the first description of such a pathology in a Boxer breed. Key words Ataxia, dog, extradural lipoma. Se describe el caso de un lipoma extradural en un canino de 10 anos de edad, hembra, de raza Boxer, con historia clinica de ataxia cronica progresiva desde hace 6 meses. En el examen neurologico se evidencio paraataxia, propiocepcion consciente negativa y disminuida en el miembro posterior izquierdo y derecho respectivamente, sin reflejo patelar bilateral y dolor a la palpacion en la columna toracolumbar. En las radiografias no se observaron signos radiologicos concordantes a espacios intervertebrales disminuidos, mientras que en la mielografia se detecto a nivel de T11-T12, T12-T13 y T13-L1 un levantamiento ventral de la medula espinal desde el piso vertebral. Se realizo hemilaminectomia entre T12-T13 y T13-L1, encontrandose gran cantidad de tejido, el cual a vista macroscopica tenia consistencia similar a grasa, se decidio evaluar dicho tejido a traves de histolopatologia e inmunohistoquimica. El tejido fue diagnosticado como lipoma. Tanto en el postquirurgico, como en la reevaluacion a los seis meses, la paciente mostro una leve mejoria al caminar sin que la paraataxia siguiera progresando. En el presente reporte, se discute el caso clinico de un paciente con lipoma extradural a nive