Spreading of struma ovarii tumour via a lumbo-peritoneal shunt: first case report and short review of the literature

Abstract

Neurosurgical shunts occasionally act as a conduit for seeding of central nervous system tumours to the abdomen. Retrograde spread of extra-neural tumours to the central nervous system is exceedingly rare. We report the first case of an abdominal primary tumour spreading to the spinal cord via a lumbo-peritoneal shunt. This is also the first case report of a struma ovarii tumour metastasis to the central nervous system via any route.

Keywords:

• Struma ovarii
• VP shunt
• LP shunt
• seeding
• metastasis
• brain tumours

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.