Orthopedist Questions Orthopedist

Cervical hemangiomas?

I'm suffering from cervical pain that generates on my left arm. The arm is weak, limited, with abduction, and has strong pain. An MRI shows c6 with active hemangioma that takes 80% of the bone marrow and has micro-breaks, c7 has 20% of hemangioma. What I want to know is 1. Can I do regular exercise? Or do I need to be careful? In other words - is the c6 fragile? 2. What can be done to help my pain and disability? 3. Can this be fixed? Or do I have to learn to live with it?

Female | 40 years old

6 Answers

You need to be evaluated by a spine specialist. Physical therapy and medications and spinal injections may be beneficial. Hemangiomas are frequently not the source of pain and there may be other reasons for your symptoms. Routine exercise is not contraindicated.
You should really get evaluated and have recommendations come from a spine surgeon. Either neurosurgery or orthopedics.
This is very difficult to answer without knowing what activities you like, symptoms, radiographs, and MRI. Need to know how close to cortex, any evidence of stress fracture, etc. This is all best addressed with your orthopedic spine surgeon or neurosurgeon.
Sorry I cannot give you a better answer. Good luck!
Sounds like you need surgery.
You need to consult with an orthopedic spine surgeon or neurosurgeon.
I can tell you a few things, but this is not my area of expertise. Cervical Hemangiomas may be benign or aggressive( grow fast or slow). You should be seen/monitored by a neurosurgeon or perhaps an oncologist immediately and they can recommend treatment options. The hemangioma would cause neck pain. However, your arm pain is either caused by a pinched nerve due to the hemangioma (you did not mention the MRI showed that) or perhaps by a shoulder problem like rotator cuff tendonitis. I would recommend that you research and find a neurosurgeon who specializes in "tumors" of the spine. As far as being careful - the answer is yes. If there are microfractures, then undue stress could cause those fractures to get larger and perhaps cause the vertebrae to break.

Hope it helps!!

Dr. Bose