Vertebral Lipoma

Abstract

Intraosseous lipoma is a rare benign tumour of the skeleton. Despite equally occurring equally in men and women of all ages (5 to 75 y.o.), it is usually identified during the IVth-VIth decades of life.

Although these lesions can be entirely asymptomatic, approximately two thirds of patients with intraosseous lipomas have localized pain and variable amounts of soft tissue swelling. The pain can be continuous or intermittent at rest, increasing after physical activity. Pathological fractures rarely occur.

We describe a patient with vertebral lipoma studied with CT and MRI.

MRI can easily demonstrate the fatty nature of vertebral lipomas, thanks to the characteristic high signal intensity on T1 weighted Spin Echo scans and the saturation of fatty signal on fat-saturating sequences, providing an accurate assessment of the degree of lesion involution.